The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by almost 0.8% today to 7,309 points.
Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:
Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN)
The Kogan share price dropped around 1.5% today after giving investors a business update for FY21.
It said there had been improvement of gross sales, gross profit and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in June 2021 compared to April and May.
Kogan revealed its growth for those statistics against FY20. Gross sales increased 52.5% to around $1.2 billion. The gross profit increased 61% to $203.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA also rose 23.1% to $61.1 million.
Active customers increased by over 46% since 30 June 2020 to 3.2 million for Kogan.com. Mighty Ape finished FY21 with 764,000 active customers.
Total inventories was $228.1 million at the year end with a net cash position of $12.8 million.
After again acknowledging its inventory issues in the last few months, Kogan said its efforts to bring down inventory levels have come a long way and is approaching the right level for the company. It's expecting improved efficiency from now on.
Kogan CEO and Founder Ruslan Kogan said:
More customers than ever are turning to Kogan.com for convenience, range and price. We are proud to have been able to service more than 3 million Australians during the challenging year behind us, all while expanding our warehousing operations, enhancing Kogan First membership rewards, and rolling out new exciting projects that will further improve delivery times and customer experience in the near future.
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)
The Altium share price fell around 5% today. It was the worst performer in the ASX 200.
According to reporting by the Australian Financial Review, the interested bidder (Autodesk) has decided to end its talks with Altium regarding a potential takeover.
Autodesk gave an offer of $38.50 per share, as well as a verbal bid of $40 per share. But Altium wasn't interested.
The Autodesk CEO said:
While we did verbally improve our initial proposal, we were unable to agree on the basis to advance discussions.
Cimic Group Ltd (ASX: CIM)
One of the best performers in the ASX 200 was construction and engineering business Cimic. It rose 4.5% after delivering its FY21 half-year result.
The company said that it generated net profit after tax (NPAT) of $208 million in the first six months of its FY21. It saw revenue growth of 10.6% to $7.1 billion. It saw "strong" revenue growth in its Australian construction and services.
Cimic also said that it generated free operating cash flow (pre-factoring) of $51 million in the second quarter of FY21. It also said that its HY21 free operating cash flow pre-factoring improved by $166 million compared to the first half of FY20.
Its factoring balance has improved from $976 million at December 2020 to $733 million at June 2021.
Cimic revealed that it had $10.4 billion of new work awarded in the first half of FY21. The biggest element of that was the North East Link primary package in Victoria for $4 billion.
The Cimic board declared an interim dividend of $0.42 per share. The balance sheet finished the period with net debt with $272.2 million.
The ASX 200 business believes the outlook across its core businesses remains positive. It pointed to numerous stimulus packages have been announced by governments in core construction and service markets.
Cimic's FY21 net profit after tax (NPAT) guidance was maintained for a range of $400 million to $430 million.
