It's Tuesday the 3rd of June 2025, and one of Australia’s biggest conglomerates, Soul Patts, is merging with building materials group Brickworks, creating a new company worth around $14 billion. After big surges in their share prices yesterday - Brickworks jumped 27 per cent and Soul Patts was up 16 per cent – the new entity will be close to a top 40 company, alongside the likes of Qantas, James Hardie, JB HiFi and Cochlear.

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News in brief

Relations between Canberra and Washington over defence spending are worsening, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejecting US calls for Australia to spend another $40 billion a year on the military.

Regional Australia is leading the national property market, with the strongest growth over the past year coming in Western Australia and South Australia outside Perth and Adelaide. In NSW, Victoria and Queensland, rural areas have also outperformed the capital city, according to Cotality.

It happened in the US and now it’s happening here. Investors are dumping gold ETFs and heading for cryptocurrencies. Last month, Bitcoin exchange traded funds attracted $87.3m – compared to just $1.5m for gold bullion ETFs, according to VanEck.

Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on four airfields deep inside Russia that housed strategic bombers used in air raids. Ukrainian officials say more than 40 aircraft were hit.

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD might be selling record numbers of cars, but its share price is falling on the back of concerns over its deep discounting policy. BYD’s decision to cut prices by up to 30 per cent has gained the attention of the People’s Daily – the mouthpiece of China’s communist party, which warned “low price, low quality” will damage the Made-in-China brand.

Fear-o-meter

The merger of Soul Patts and Brickworks brings together two storied companies with long histories in corporate Australia. For the last 56 years, each company has owned part of the other. Currently Soul Patts owns 43 per cent of Brickworks and Brickworks has 26 per cent of Soul Patts.

The idea was that each would buy shares in the other to protect themselves from corporate raiders. And it succeeded.

Soul Patts is one the country’s oldest listed companies. It began in 1872 as a pharmacy business in Sydney’s Pitt Street, then in nearby Balmain in 1886, and listed in 1903 as Washington H Soul Pattinson. Nowadays it has interest in coal, telecommunications and finance, and the current chair, Robert Millner, is the fourth member of the family to run the business.

Brickworks listed on the ASX in 1960, though is more than 90 years old, and has mostly been making bricks ever since. It has 45 manufacturing plants and 17 different brands, including Austral Bricks.

The deal creates a bigger, more investable company and given those share price jumps, it seems investors like it.

Who's talking today?

On the rapidly changing state of geopolitics, from Ukraine's massive drone attack on Russia, to attempts by the US to pressure Australia into increasing defence spending:

 

"The United States under Trump is now giving Australia and key allies and partners in the region the European treatment. They've sort of shocked and jolted a lot of the European countries into upping their defence spending as a percentage of GDP because they felt that the United States was carrying too much of the NATO burden. Well, clearly that approach is being now applied to Asia. 

I think the American administration must know that this is not possible for a lot of the Asian allies and partners... perhaps they don't even care. I think the problem too is that the message is being delivered by someone with no real stature or authority in Pete Hegseth. He's had a very troubled period as US Defense Secretary. And I think a lot of Asian allies will be doing with this announcement, effectively what they've been doing with the tariffs. We just don't know really how much pressure the United States will keep pushing on this point. Trump, as we know, is mercurial."

Greed-o-meter

The ASX is home to some very old companies, Soul Patts being one of them. Here are some of the household names that began in the 1800s.

Source: Firstlinks

Join Fear & Greed for a very special event!

Today, the second novel by Fear & Greed's Michael Thompson is hitting Australian bookshops. And this Thursday we're having a special event to celebrate. Join us for the launch of All The Perfect Days, just a fortnight after its US release - along with the first-ever live recording of Fear & Greed's Weekend Edition.  

This is a free event on Thursday June 5 at Business Sydney - book your ticket here for a great evening. 

And if you can't make it, but would still like to support an Australian author, you can order the novel from Booktopia or find it at Dymocks, Collins or any good bookshop.

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