56-399: Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court (27 July 1937 – 2 September 1990) was a South African-born Australian businessman who became Australia's first billionaire, before dying suddenly of heart failure in 1990 at the age of 53. A great-great-grandson of William Holmes à Court, 2nd Baron Heytesbury , and a grand-nephew of William Frederick Holmes à Court, 3rd Baron Heytesbury , Holmes à Court
112-480: A barrister and solicitor. His law practice in Perth was sometimes in partnership with Nicholas Hasluck . Holmes à Court entered the corporate stage by accident in 1970, when his law firm was asked to act as administrative receiver of a small publicly listed company, Western Australian Worsted & Woollen Mills (later Albany Woollen Mills , also known as AWM or WA Wool). The company was the single largest employer in
168-484: A call system, where an exchange employee called the names of each company and brokers bid or offered on each. In the 1960s this changed to a post system. Exchange employees called "chalkies" wrote bids and offers in chalk on blackboards continuously, and recorded transactions made. The ASX (Australian Stock Exchange Limited) was formed in 1987 by legislation of the Australian Parliament which enabled
224-776: A company initiated by the Beatles to control copyright of their music. ATV Music Publishing was bought by Michael Jackson , and as part of the deal, Holmes à Court persuaded Jackson to make a brief visit to Perth, to appear on Channel 7 's annual Telethon . In 1987, Bell Group purchased a stake in Pioneer Concrete and made a second unsuccessful bid for the Herald & Weekly Times group. The bid went to takeover competitor Rupert Murdoch for $ 1.8 billion. Bell Group took ownership of The West Australian , Perth's main daily newspaper. Australian Consolidated Investments,
280-588: A profit of $ 11 million was made by Bell for future bids. Bell Group made an unsuccessful bid for The Times in 1980, and at the same time initiated a new Perth newspaper, the Western Mail , challenging the Herald & Weekly Times group which owned The West Australian . By the end of 1980, Bell Group had accumulated cash reserves of $ 100 million. In 1981, it made a bid for Elders Goldsbrough Mort for $ 120 million bid and failed, but earned
336-647: A profit of $ 16.5 million on the deal. During 1982, Bell Group took stakes in Rolls-Royce and Portland cement and made an unsuccessful bid for The Herald and Weekly Times group. Later that year it acquired Perth television station TVW -7. Bell Group subsequently acquired a television station in Adelaide and a few small regional radio stations. Unsuccessful bids were made for Carlton & United Breweries and Elders IXL but, as usual, Holmes à Court's strategic corporate planning let him walk away with
392-502: A profit. Bell Group acted as a " white knight " in defeating a £1.9 billion hostile bid from Lloyds Bank for its competitor Standard Chartered Bank. As a result of boardroom coup during 1982 it acquired Lew Grade 's UK-based Associated Communications Corporation (ACC), and then sold off ACC's stake in Central Independent Television and ATV Music publishing interests, including Northern Songs ,
448-473: A single contract of greasy wool that by the end of the year had traded 19,042 lots. 1969–1970 : The Poseidon bubble (a mining boom triggered by a nickel discovery in Western Australia) caused Australian mining shares to soar and then crash, prompting regulatory recommendations that ultimately led to Australia's national companies and securities legislation. 1976 : The Australian Options Market
504-675: A wealthy Rhodesian landowner, businessman and colleague of Cecil Rhodes . Cumming had helped raise Ethnee during her childhood on his estate outside Gweru . As an adult and while living in Rhodesia and South Africa, Ethnee had also established and sold both a riding school and a game lodge in Chobe , and eventually sold several properties that she owned as investments giving the funds to Robert to manage on her migration to Australia in 1967. After acquiring WA Wool, Holmes à Court made it more competitive by reducing production costs, mainly by installing
560-915: A well-known West Australian transport and contracting group, for $ 9.6 million, through a reverse takeover . Bell Brothers would ultimately become his flagship company as The Bell Group Ltd. Bell Group acquired media interests including the Albany Advertiser , the Katanning weekly, the Great Southern Herald , the Collie Mail and radio station 6VA. It also made unsuccessful bids for companies such as Griffin Coal , Greenbushes Tin and Emu Wines. These bids, while unsuccessful, earned significant profits mainly by aggressive defences from owners resulting in inflated share prices held by
616-687: Is a NASDAQ OMX ultra-low latency trading platform based on NASDAQ OMX's Genium INET system, which is used by many exchanges around the world. It is one of the fastest and most functional multi-asset trading platforms in the world, delivering latency down to ~250 microseconds. ASX Trade24 is ASX global trading platform for derivatives. It is globally distributed with network access points (gateways) located in Chicago, New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne. It also allows for true 24-hour trading, and simultaneously maintains two active trading days which enables products to be opened for trading in
SECTION 10
#1732771820165672-482: Is a pre-market session from 7:00 am to 10:00 am Sydney time and a normal trading session from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Sydney time. The market opens alphabetically in Single-price auctions , phased over the first ten minutes, with a small random time built in to prevent exact prediction of the first trades. There is also a single-price auction between 4:10 pm and 4:12 pm to set
728-537: Is an academic concerned with the environment and climate and founder of climate fund Climate 200 , and Catherine (married, with four children). Holmes à Court's mother Ethnee died at the age of 98 in May 2014. Robert and Janet Holmes à Court had 12 grandchildren by 2005, according to an interview with her. William %C3%A0 Court-Holmes, 2nd Baron Heytesbury William Henry Ashe à Court-Holmes later Holmes-à Court, 2nd Baron Heytesbury (11 July 1809 – 21 April 1891)
784-401: Is now a major investor and entrepreneur in his own right, after divesting himself of his share of Heytesbury, reported as A$ 35 million. Peter Holmes à Court, along with Russell Crowe , is the 75.8% owner of National Rugby League club South Sydney Rabbitohs . Another son, Paul Holmes à Court , has since taken over as chief executive. Robert Holmes à Court's other children are Simon , who
840-544: The House of Lords . Lord Heytesbury married Elizabeth Holmes, daughter of Sir Leonard Worsley-Holmes, 9th Baronet , in 1833. He assumed by royal licence the additional surname of Holmes after that of à Court at the same time. In 1860 he changed the family name, by royal licence, from à Court-Holmes to Holmes-à Court. A daughter, Emily, married Edward O'Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin . Lord Heytesbury died in April 1891, aged 81, and
896-913: The Melbourne Cup with a time of 3 minutes 18.19 seconds. Holmes à Court died intestate , and his estate was to be divided one-third for his widow Janet (née Ranford), and the remainder equally among their four children, who include Peter , Paul , and Simon . Holmes à Court was born in Johannesburg but spent much of his early life in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ). He was educated at Cordwalles Preparatory School and Michaelhouse School in Natal , South Africa. There he earned money selling his schoolmates photographs he had taken of them, and by driving them home in exchange for their travel allowances. Holmes à Court studied forestry at
952-477: The University of Auckland and Massey University , where he graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1962. He then moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1961 to study law at the University of Western Australia , where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1965. He married science teacher Janet Ranford on 18 May 1966. Holmes à Court was admitted to practise on 17 April 1968. He then worked as
1008-495: The $ 75,000 deposit for the purchase price of WA Wool shares came from a bank account that he shared with the partners in his law firm at the time, and his partners asked for these funds to be repaid. Nevertheless, since Holmes à Court had no other apparent source of income at the time, a possibility is that his mother Ethnee financed his first foray into business, since she had stood to inherit from her mother Florence, who in turn had stood to inherit from her second husband H.R. Cumming,
1064-602: The ASX could not offer them. The court held they were options and so LEPOs were introduced in 1995. 1995 : Stamp duty on share transactions was halved from 0.3% to 0.15%. The ASX had agreed with the Queensland State Government to locate staff in Brisbane in exchange for the stamp duty reduction there, and the other states followed suit so as not to lose brokerage business to Queensland. In 2000 stamp duty
1120-690: The ASX in 1998. 2000 : In October, ASX acquires a 15% stake in the trading and order management software company IRESS (formerly BridgeDFS Ltd). 2001 : Stamp duty on marketable securities abolished. 2006 : The ASX announced a merger with the Sydney Futures Exchange, the primary derivatives exchange in Australia. ASX Group has two trading platforms – ASX Trade, which facilitates the trading of ASX equity securities and ASX Trade24 for derivative securities trading. All ASX equity securities are traded on screen on ASX Trade. ASX Trade
1176-441: The ASX operating rules. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has oversight of the ASX's clearing and settlement facilities for financial system stability. Products and services available for trading on ASX include shares, futures, exchange traded options, warrants, contracts for difference, exchange-traded funds, real estate investment trusts, listed investment companies and interest rate securities. The biggest stocks traded on
SECTION 20
#17327718201651232-567: The ASX, in terms of market capitalisation , include BHP , Commonwealth Bank , Westpac , Telstra , Rio Tinto , National Australia Bank and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group . The major market index is the S&;P/ASX 200 , an index made up of the top 200 shares in the ASX. This supplanted the previously significant All Ordinaries index, which still runs parallel to the S&;P ASX 200. Both are commonly quoted together. Other indices for
1288-603: The Hobart exchange. In November 1903 the first interstate conference was held to coincide with the Melbourne Cup . The exchanges then met on an informal basis until 1937 when the Australian Associated Stock Exchanges (AASE) was established, with representatives from each exchange. Over time the AASE established uniform listing rules, broker rules, and commission rates. Trading was conducted by
1344-569: The Stock Exchange Automated Trading System (SEATS). It was a far cry from the original system which dated back over 100 years. During that time there had been three different forms of trading on the Australian stock exchanges. The earliest was the auction-based call system, which saw a stock exchange employee (the caller) call the name of each listed security in turn while members bid, offered, sold or bought
1400-813: The Sydney Stock Exchange. 1885 : Two years after the Broken Hill Mining Company (private company) was established by a syndicate of seven men from the Mount Gipps Station , the company was incorporated to become the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP). In 1885, BHP listed on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. 1937 : The Australian Associated Stock Exchanges (AASE) was established in 1937. Since 1903
1456-485: The amalgamation of six independent stock exchanges that formerly operated in the state capital cities. After demutualisation , the ASX was the first exchange in the world to have its shares quoted on its own market. The ASX was listed on 14 October 1998. On 7 July 2006 the Australian Stock Exchange merged with SFE Corporation, holding company for the Sydney Futures Exchange. 1861 : Ten years after
1512-537: The bidder. In 1977, Holmes à Court's brother Simon disappeared in mysterious circumstances in Africa. His abandoned car was found more than 1,000 km from his home and where he was last seen in Botswana . Author Geoff Elliott wrote a book about the disappearance. During 1979, Bell Group made an unsuccessful bid for Ansett Transport Industries but was defeated by Rupert Murdoch and roadfreight group TNT . However,
1568-607: The bigger stocks are the S&P/ASX 100 and S&P/ASX 50 . The origins of the ASX date back to the mid-1800s when six separate exchanges were established in Australia's state capital cities of Melbourne , Victoria, (1861), Sydney , New South Wales (1871), Hobart , Tasmania (1882), Brisbane , Queensland (1884), Adelaide , South Australia (1887) and Perth , Western Australia (1889, the Stock Exchange of Perth ). A further exchange in Launceston , Tasmania, merged into
1624-770: The daily closing prices. Security holders hold shares in one of two forms, both of which operate as uncertificated holdings, rather than through the issue of physical share certificates : Holdings may be moved from issuer-sponsored to CHESS or between different brokers by electronic message initiated by the controlling participant. Short selling of shares is permitted on the ASX, but only among designated stocks and with certain conditions: Many brokers do not offer short selling to small private investors. LEPOs can serve as an equivalent, while contracts for difference (CFDs) offered by third-party providers are another alternative. In September 2008, ASIC suspended nearly all forms of short selling due to concerns about market stability during
1680-417: The electronic CLICK system for derivatives began. 1998 : ASX demutualised to become a listed company. It was the first exchange in the world to demutualise and list on its own market, a trend that has been imitated by several other exchanges over the years. The Australian Mutual Provident Society began in 1849 as an organisation offering life insurance. Now known as AMP it became a publicly listed company on
1736-597: The floor of the Sydney Exchange was suspended throughout Friday. Damage totaled $ 2 million and repairs took more than six months, with new carpet laid and cables and computers replaced. Stockbrokers who had taken advantage of joint access were able to trade on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. And, with the Sydney trading floor closed by floodwaters, the Melbourne Exchange enjoyed its busiest trading day for
Robert Holmes à Court - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-466: The ground rules for commissions and the flotation of government and semi-government loan raisings. 1938 : Publication of the first share price index. 1939 : Sydney Stock Exchange closed for the first time due to the declaration of World War II . 1960 : Sydney Futures Exchange began trading as Sydney Greasy Wool Futures Exchange (SGWFE). Its original goal was to provide Australian wool traders with hedging facilities in their own country. SGWFE offered
1848-492: The largest in the southern hemisphere. ASX Clear is the clearing house for all shares, structured products, warrants and ASX Equity Derivatives. ASX Group is a market operator, clearing house and payments system facilitator. It also oversees compliance with its operating rules, promotes standards of corporate governance among Australia's listed companies and helps to educate retail investors. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has responsibility for
1904-516: The latest wool milling and weaving machinery. This was acquired on favourable terms from a leading Belgian equipment manufacturer, which was keen to enter the Australian market at that time. He now controlled a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange , and from there he began to gain control of a string of small businesses, including Westate Electrical Industries . In 1973, Holmes à Court's AWM acquired Bell Brothers ,
1960-486: The morning of 2 September 1990. Holmes à Court died intestate and his estate was to be divided one-third for his widow Janet (née Ranford), and the remainder equally among their four children. Heytesbury Holdings continues as one of the largest private companies in Australia. Janet Holmes à Court managed Heytesbury from the time of her husband's death until 2005, when she retired. She was, at one time, Australia's richest woman. The couple's eldest son, Peter Holmes à Court,
2016-531: The new trading day in one time zone while products are still trading under the previous day. The normal trading or business days of the ASX are week-days, Monday to Friday. ASX does not trade on national public holidays: New Year's Day (1 January), Australia Day (26 January, and observed on this day or the first business day after this date), Good Friday (that varies each year), Easter Monday, Anzac day (25 April), King's Birthday (June), Christmas Day (25 December) and Boxing Day (26 December). On each trading day there
2072-597: The official advent of the Gold Rush , Australia's first stock exchange was formed in Melbourne. In the 1850s Victoria was Australia's gold mining centre, its population increasing from 80,000 in 1851 to 540,000 in 1861. 1871 : Thirty years after it lit the first gas street light in Sydney, the Australian Gas Light Company took its place in history again, becoming the second company to list on
2128-661: The parent couldn't acquire its subsidiary and thereby access the money. Holmes à Court initially disposed of some Perth properties before accepting a joint takeover by Bond Corporation and the State Government Insurance Commission (SGIC), in which both parties took a 19.9% stake in Bell Group. Holmes à Court retained 6% of Bell Group and received $ 340 million from the sale. Bond Corp was subsequently forced to bid for other shares in Bell with
2184-924: The rebuilding and expansion of his Heytesbury subsidiaries acquiring Stoll Moss Theatres in London, Sherwin Pastoral Co (owner of vast cattle stations in Northern Australia), and the Vasse Felix winery in Margaret River. In 1989, Heytesbury bought the Victoria River Downs and major Sherwin Pastoral Co cattle and pastoral stations. Holmes à Court also traded in Jaguar stock, as well as Christie's and New Zealand media group Wilson & Horton . During 1990, Bell Resources
2240-566: The regional city of Albany . In what he later described as his most challenging "takeover" — probably because it was his first —, he found a way to invest $ 500,000 in the ailing business, on the proviso that the state Minister for Industry, Sir Charles Court , would persuade the Government of Western Australia to forgive the $ 500,000 in loans they had made. The source of funds for his initial investment in WA Wool were never made clear, since
2296-528: The result that it ended up with a majority shareholding of 68% of Bell Group. Bond Corp then proceeded to strip $ 500 million from Bell Resources in an effort to prop up its own debts. The asset stripping included transferring cash from Bell Resources Ltd for its own purposes (thus breaching the company code and ultimately sending its chairman Alan Bond to jail), transfer of ownership of newspaper holdings into Bond Media and disposal of certain assets including TVW-7. During 1988, Holmes à Court concentrated on
Robert Holmes à Court - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-465: The state stock exchanges had met on an informal basis, but in 1936 Sydney took the lead in formalising the association. Initially this involved the exchanges in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart and Sydney. Melbourne and Perth joined soon after. Through the AASE the exchanges gradually brought in common listing requirements for companies and uniform brokerage and other rules for stockbroking firms. They also set
2408-547: The stock at each call. This system proved inadequate to handle the increased volume of trading during the mining booms. It was replaced by the 'post' system in the early 1960s, which involved stocks being quoted on 'posts' or 'boards'. 'Chalkies' were employed by the Stock Exchange and it was their function to record in chalk the bids and offers of the operators (employees of stockbrokers) and the sales made. This system stayed in place until 1987. 1990 : A warrants market
2464-443: The supervision of real-time trading on Australia's domestic licensed financial markets and the supervision of the conduct by participants (including the relationship between participants and their clients) on those markets. ASIC also supervises ASX's own compliance as a public company with ASX Listing Rules. ASX Compliance is an ASX subsidiary company that is responsible for monitoring and enforcing ASX-listed companies' compliance with
2520-657: The time of the October 1987 international stockmarket crash , Bell Group had accumulated assets that were valuable but not generating revenue sufficient to cover debts. Holmes à Court's family company, Heytesbury Holdings , at the time owned 43% of Bell Group, which in turn owned 40% of the cash rich Bell Resources. However, Bell Resources was not able to buy its parent, due to share raids being made on Bell Resources by Kerry Packer , Adelaide Steamship Company (under John Spalvins) and IEL ( Ron Brierley ). Merrill Lynch withdrew its $ 1 billion line of credit facility, meaning that
2576-465: The year. After that episode a back-up site was established outside the Sydney CBD. 1987 : The Australian Stock Exchange Limited (ASX) was formed on 1 April 1987, through incorporation under legislation of the Australian Parliament. The formation of the national stock exchange involved the amalgamation of the six independent stock exchanges that had operated in the states' capital cities. Launch of
2632-459: Was Australia's largest company. Before the deal was finalised the following year, Elders IXL took a 20% stake in BHP, for $ 2 billion. In turn, BHP purchased $ 1 billion of Elders preference shares. The deal later resulted in action against Elders executives, including chairman John Elliott by the corporate regulator. BRL also spent US$ 800 million, to acquire 9.6% of Texaco stock. By
2688-478: Was a British peer and Conservative Member of Parliament . Born William Henry Ashe à Court, Lord Heytesbury was the only son of William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury , and Maria Rebecca Bouverie. In 1828 he went up to St John's College, Cambridge . He was elected to the House of Commons for the Isle of Wight in 1837, a seat he held until 1847. In 1860 he succeeded his father as second Baron Heytesbury and entered
2744-577: Was abolished in all states as part of the introduction of the GST . 1996 : The exchange members (brokers etc.) voted to demutualise . The exchange was incorporated as ASX Limited and in 1998 the company was listed on the ASX itself, with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission enforcing the listing rules for ASX Limited. 1997 : Electronic trading commences as the option market moves from floor to screen. A phased transition to
2800-497: Was established, trading call options . 1980 : The separate Melbourne and Sydney stock exchange indices were replaced by Australian Stock Exchange indices. 1984 : Brokers' commission rates were deregulated. Commissions have gradually fallen ever since, with rates today as low as 0.12% or 0.05% from discount internet-based brokers. 1984 : Sydney Stock Exchange closed due to heavy rain and flooding on 9 November 1984 with 70 millimetres of rain falling in one half-hour. All trading on
2856-702: Was established. 1993 : Fixed-interest securities were added (see Interest rate market below). Also in 1993, the FAST system of accelerated settlement was established, and the following year the CHESS system (see Settlement below) was introduced, superseding FAST. 1994 : The Sydney Futures Exchange announced trading in futures over individual ASX stocks. The ASX responded with the Low Exercise Price Option or LEPO (see below). The SFE went to court, claiming that LEPOs were futures and therefore that
SECTION 50
#17327718201652912-403: Was formed on 1 April 1987, through incorporation under legislation of the Australian Parliament as an amalgamation of the six state securities exchanges, and merged with the Sydney Futures Exchange in 2006. Today, ASX has an average daily turnover of A$ 4.685 billion and a market capitalisation of around A$ 1.6 trillion , making it one of the world's top 20 listed exchange groups, and
2968-410: Was one of the world's most feared corporate raiders through the 1980s, having increased his properties single-handedly from virtually nothing to a diversified resources and media group with an estimated value immediately before the 1987 stock market crash of about A$ 2 billion. Shareholders in the company enjoyed enormous investment growth. During 1984 Robert Holmes à Court's horse Black Knight won
3024-778: Was previously known as Bell Resources between 1984 and 1990 and prior to that the company was known as Wigmores between 1938 and 1984. In 1983, Bell Group bought Perth mining equipment company Wigmores, and was renamed Bell Resources Ltd. Through the ACC group, BRL gained control of Bass Strait oil and gas explorer, Weeks Petroleum which owned a 2.5% royalty share in the Esso - BHP consortium. In 1985, BRL acquired 13% of U.S. mining company Asarco for $ 140 million and made an unsuccessful bid for Perth utility Fremantle Gas & Coke. Also in 1985, BRL made its biggest and most daring bid to date for control of resources and steelmaking giant BHP, which
3080-454: Was renamed Australian Consolidated Investments Limited. Also Bond Corporation announced a record $ 980m loss and Elders IXL followed with an announcement of a $ 1.3 billion loss. Bond Corporation entered a scheme of arrangement in 1991, with receivers taking charge of the Bell Group. In 2002, Australian Consolidated Investments was delisted from the ASX. A heavy smoker who suffered from diabetes, Holmes à Court died of heart failure in bed on
3136-557: Was succeeded by his grandson, William Holmes-à Court. Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd ( ASX ) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange , the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, the Sydney Stock Exchange , a separate entity). The ASX
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