Joe Aston

Sydney

Founder and Writer at Rampart

Columnist at Australian Financial Review

Former @FinancialReview columnist. My book on @Qantas, The Chairman’s Lounge, out in October 2024.

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Articles

Regal now blind and unfashionable

1 week ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

Clients of Regal Funds Management are digesting the carnage across its latest performance numbers, released on Wednesday. In the three months to March 31, Regal's global absolute return fund was down 40 per cent; its global tactical opportunities fund was down 22 per cent; its Australian small companies fund was down 19 per cent; its global market neutral fund was down 18 per cent; and its Australian long-short fund was down 11 per cent.
Le grand tour d'Albanese

1 week ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

I've always subscribed to George Orwell's definition that "Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations". In that spirit, there are three profiles of Australian political leaders that stand out in my memory. The first, published by The Australian in 2008, was John Lyons' lifting of the veil from prime minister Kevin Rudd's anarchic office seven months into his reign as prime minister.
ASX marks the spot

1 week ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

In the lather of another demented week in Trumpistan, I remembered Malcolm Turnbull's (very Malcolm Turnbull) observation on the 2015 night he snatched the Australian prime ministership: "There has never been a more exciting time to be alive than today". It just gets truer and truer every year – though I'd probably swap "exciting" for "bracing".
Not so AustralianSuper

2 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

It's not every day (or even decade) that the most powerful person on earth commits extravagant national self-harm just so he can feel alive. What a thing. I mean, couldn't someonehave just bought him a skydiving voucher?
Is Vik Bansal on the move?

2 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

Multiple Australian equities funds are in ongoing talks with Boral CEO Vik Bansal to install him at the helm of their problematic portfolio companies. Many a fund manager is unconcerned by Bansal's lack of people skills. They are enchanted by his objectively stellar turnaround record and find themselves swaying involuntarily as he speaks his fluent PowerPoint. They zone out like cobras whenever Vik starts playing his magic flute. He is the value managers' shaman.
Todd Sampson's departure and dancing with David Di Pilla

2 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

The level of crazy has really taken off in the past few weeks – and I'm not even talking about the White House. On the ASX boards, Mineral Resources, WiseTech and now James Hardie are prime examples of scintillatingly poor governance. All give the lie to this notion that ESG is so woke, so secondary!The James Hardie story – and here's my Monday piece ICYMI – has really floored me.
James Hardie hustlers steal the company from Australian shareholders

2 weeks ago | afr.com | Joe Aston

Apr 4, 2025 – 9.00am or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Last week in broad daylight, the American pirates running James Hardie swept in and stole the company from its Australian shareholders.
The pirates take James Hardie

3 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

Shock has turned to fury among the large Australian shareholders of building products giant James Hardie, which last Monday announced the acquisition, on unfathomable terms, of Chicago decking company AZEK. Two-thirds if not four-fifths of public company acquisitions are value destructive, and this one adheres strictly to the formula. Hardie's old staple asbestos was a fireproof material but the same certainly can't be said for its shareholders' highly flammable funds today.
ANZ Plus blues and Qantas' Finnair turbulence

3 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

For a journalist, riding the news cycle is the reverse of riding a rollercoaster, in that the real terror lurks in the low, flat straights where nothing dramatic is happening. On Saturday, I was panicked by the dearth of compelling material I had to work with. By Monday, I was inundated. Column-writing is also a momentum game and in only the sixth week of Rampart's life, I'm clearly still finding my rhythm.
Regal's Phil King plays a blinder

4 weeks ago | rampart.news | Joe Aston

There really needs to be a series of Gogglebox where instead of filming common layabouts at home, the cameras point back at market animals from their Bloomberg screens. I would pay good money to see the unfiltered reactions on Monday morning when ASX-and Nasdaq-listed biotech Opthea announced that the phase 3 trial of its treatment for macular degeneration (AKA old-age blindness) had bombed.