Seek founder Paul Bassat to step down, Shares higher: Economy Roundup

Seek chief executive and co-founder Paul Bassat has announced he will step down from the company in June next year with brother Andrew Bassat to take over as the company’s sole chief.

Bassat said in a statement he will take a year off and then re-join the company’s board in 2012 as a non-executive director, and he will also continue to operate as a shareholder.

Bassat said that he had, “come to the conclusion that it will be hard for me to show the level of enthusiasm for the job itself over the next few years as is required to perform to the best of my ability.”

“Seek will continue to grow and prosper under the great leadership of Andrew Bassat as CEO, Bob Watson as chairman and because of the efforts and talents of a very dedicated team.”

Watson also said that Bassat has made an “enormous contribution” to the company, leading it from a start-up to one of the largest online employment companies globally.

“Paul leaves the company in an excellent position having recently achieved an outstanding result in the 2010 financial year and with exciting growth prospects. Paul can take great pride in his achievements and on behalf of the board I think him for his contribution and wish him success in all he chooses to do in the future.”

Bank of Queensland has announced a 5% increase in net case profit after tax for the year to 31 August, reaching $197.1 million from $187.4 million, although this was still under market expectations of $200 million.

Managing director David Liddy said the bank had managed to deliver its commitments despite “difficult conditions” and said the company expects debt losses to peak this year.

“We have experienced an increase in bad debt expense during the year and, as a result, we have increased our provision coverage,” he said.

Consumers expect the rate of inflation will increase during October, according to the latest result from the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations.

The result found median expected inflation rate rose to 3.8% in October, from 3.1% during September. Melbourne Institute research fellow Michael Chua said in a statement the result was higher than expected.

“While we expect inflationary pressures to build up over the next 12 months, this month’s jump in inflationary expectations … came as a surprise.”

“We are living in more uncertain times and this is showing up in the dispersion of views among the respondents.”

Shares higher on solid Wall Street lead

The Australian sharemarket has opened higher today following a solid result from Wall Street, where stocks reached a five-month high due to stronger than expected financial results.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 68 points or 1.49% to 68.822 at 12.20 AEST, while the Australian dollar has reached yet another peak at US99.7c.

AMP shares gained 1.3% to $5.27, while Commonwealth Bank shares rose 2% to $51.00. NAB rose 1.7% to $25.64 as Westpac grew 2.2% to $23.04.

In Canberra, climate change minister Greg Combat has said the Government is not necessarily set on producing a carbon tax.

“There’s been quite extensive speculation about a carbon tax in the media in the last week or two,” he told ABC Radio.

“We’re committed to trying to find the most economically efficient way of achieving reductions in carbon pollution and you shouldn’t get too carried away about the issue of a carbon tax.”

Mining group Northern Energy Corporation has rejected a $193 million takeover offer from New Hope, calling the bid inadequate and opportunistic.

“The offer … has been timed to take advantage of short-term share price weakness associated with the mineral resource rent tax and delays in mine approvals,” Northern Energy said in a statement.

“The offer does not reflect the inherent value in the Northern Energy portfolio of assets nor does it reflect the strategic value of Northern Energy’s project pipeline.”

Investors mixed on JPMorgan results

In the United States, JPMorgan Chase & Co reported third-quarter net income of $US4.42 billion, up from $US3.59 billion a year earlier. However, while these results were somewhat solid, more investors are becoming nervous about the company’s continued growth.

Chief executive Jamie Dimon said while profit rose 23%, the result is, “still not particularly good for a company of our size”.

Disappointing figures from the Labor Department also found that import prices fell 0.3% in September, although excluding petrol, prices rose 0.3% after increasing by 0.2% in August.

However, other solid results on Wall Street helped stocks rise to a five-month high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 75 points or 0.69% to 11,096.8.