Angus Aitken lines up Rio, BHP over support of ‘small minded’ McGowan
The high-profile Sydney stockbroker has savaged BHP and Rio Tinto
by Cliona O’Dowd 25 January 2022 The Australian Newspaper
Angus Aitken, the high-profile Sydney stockbroker known for his outspoken investment commentary, has savaged BHP and Rio Tinto for supporting Mark McGowan’s “small minded” move to delay the Western Australian border openings.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, Mr Aitken harshly criticised the mining giants for their long-term performance, describing Rio as “a bunch of lost dogs” and questioning how directors of both companies were comfortable being locked out of their WA assets.
“I love WA, I own a house down the coast there I cannot visit, my wife and her family are from there, we have raised a lot of capital over the decades for WA companies and supported WA-based companies and businesses,” Mr Aitken, now at Aitken Murray Capital, wrote.
“The only thing I hate is Mark McGowan, he is an absolute knob.
“The only good thing for WA people from the borders being closed is that even bigger battler politician Anthony Albanese cannot come into their state.
“BHP calls themselves the ‘Big Australian’ (but) how can the Big Australian support such small minded policy like the WA government has at the moment which makes them a global laughing stock,” he told clients.
“Does the ‘Big Australian’ actually support fully-vaccinated Australians not being able to travel freely between states … as board members of BHP and Rio, do they actually feel comfortable not being able to see their largest cashflow-generating assets in person.”
The West Australian Premier last week pushed back the opening of his state’s borders to the rest of the country – previously expected on February 5 – citing rising Covid-19 infections.
On Monday, claims from the WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson that NSW and Victoria were in lockdown “in all but name” was met with incredulity – and the state’s strict border restrictions have already been criticised by Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and other key business figures including Fortescue Metals chief executive Elizabeth Gaines.
Mr Aitken, the former head of institutional equities at Bell Potter and a long-term supporter of Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest, said neither BHP or Rio had “done anything entrepreneurial or smart in decades”.
“BHP is clearly going to have an enormous volume day next week (when its dual-listed structure is collapsed) but you don’t always make money owning the largest and least nimble stock in a sector,” he wrote.
“They exited oil and gas at the absolute bottom to Woodside, gave away their coal assets in Colombia to Glencore … they will clearly buy something massive for a stupid price, so how is that a good long term story.
“Rio are like a bunch of old lost dogs, they used to have the best assets and the best people and that is no longer the case. They are clearly going to do more M&A similar to BHP in terms of filling their pipeline and both … don’t feel exciting organic stories in any way.”
Mr Aitken did have some investment advice: “Best short idea? Mark McGowan – bloke will be irrelevant in coming years, he should be awarded un-Australian of the Year tomorrow.”
Original article here
Note: Even worse are all of the Liberal Party MPs & Senators consenting to McGowan in their shameful silence of his undemocratic tyranny.