Here’s what you need to know today

• For over a decade, Joe Aston instilled fear in Australia’s top business leaders as he wrote scathing takedowns as the AFR’s Rear Window columnist. Now, as he promotes his upcoming book on Qantas, Aston finds himself wrangling with his biggest target yet: the Prime Minister. In response to Aston’s allegations of inappropriate upgrades and favours, Anthony Albanese has derided them as an attempt “to sell a book”. One thing is certain - all this noise will certainly help Aston’s book sales. (ABC)
  
  

• Zip’s rebound continues. Reporting its Q1 numbers, the buy now pay later provider reported transactions globally were up 23% and in the US specifically up 43%. Profit was up more than 200%. In the past 12 months, Zip’s share price is up 922%. (AFR)
  
  

• Tensions between Australia’s private hospitals and private health insurers continue to simmer away. Australia’s second largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, will start charging millions of Bupa customers an extra $100 a night to be treated at one of their 38 hospitals. Why? Private hospital operators are asking health insurers to tip in more money to share the escalating cost of operating private hospitals. Medibank Private, NIB and HCF amongst others all agreed to Healthscope’s request, but Bupa so far has refused. (AFR)
  
  

• In Germany, carmaker Volkswagen is struggling to keep up in an electric vehicle world. The company has announced plans to close 3 factories (the first German plant closures in its 87 year history), layoff tens of thousands of workers and cut pay for all German workers by 10%. The company’s workers council and the union hinted at strikes if VW follows through on the plan. (Associated Press)
  
  

• Boeing has announced plans for a $19 billion capital raise as it seeks to sure up its balance sheet in the face of ongoing worker’s strikes, safety issues and investigations by regulators. In the ‘Risks’ section of the offer document, Boeing suggested the ongoing machinists strike is an existential threat to its business. (Quartz)
  
  

• With the US election less than a week away, prediction markets are leaning towards Trump. Platforms like Polymarket and PredictIt have Trump’s odds of winning roughly 66%. But the biggest prediction market of all, the share market, also thinks Trump is more likely. The share price of Trump Media & Technology Group jumped 17% on Monday and is up almost 300% since September. Trump’s company is now worth $9 billion despite bringing in only $837k revenue in the June quarter. (Reuters)

What the…?

Here’s a warning for anyone that has sat through boring online training modules. Accounting and consulting giant EY has fired dozens of US staff after discovering employees were completing multiple online training modules at the same time.

EY requires employees to complete these modules each year as part of continuing professional development, and ruled that taking 2 at a time is an ethical breach. (Financial Times)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

This is an excerpt from our conversation with Dr Mary Manning, titled ‘Expert: Mary Manning - Why Asia is too big too ignore’. (Apple | Spotify)

Question: Can you share your first investment story?

Absolutely. My first investment was quite significant as it set the stage for my entire career in investing in Asia and emerging markets. In the late 1990s, while attending business school, I completed a summer internship in Beijing at a company called VXI China, one of the first venture capital firms in the country. We assisted Chinese entrepreneurs in getting their businesses off the ground.

Our office had no landlines; everyone used mobile phones, and some had two—one for work and another for personal use. Most of the entrepreneurs we worked with didn’t have formal offices; they were always on the go, often with one or two mobile phones.

My first investment was actually in China Mobile. At the time, my reasoning was straightforward: there were over a billion people in China, and they would each need at least one phone. The math was simple. China Mobile was the primary means to invest in that market and had an American Depositary Receipt (ADR), making it easy for North American investors to purchase. 

I held onto my investment in China Mobile for about five or six years. It's interesting to note that my initial analysis back then may seem simplistic, but it laid the groundwork for my focus today—spending most of my time analysing stocks in China and other parts of Asia.

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