Last Orders: What you might have missed on the ASX today

Here’s the kind of late Friday afternoon announcement anyone who’s left paying attention loves to still be in the office for:

“1st Group Limited (ASX:1ST) is pleased to announce it has entered into a strategic commercial partnership with Afterpay something something something…”

The nuts and bolts are it’s a strategic partnership for three years, and Afterpay will promote 1ST Group’s MyHealth1st platform to its healthcare network.

1ST shares rose from 3.2c to 5.4c immediately on the news, before settling at 4.1c for the day, up 41.4%.

Other announcements

– Triangle Energy (ASX:TEG) has entered into a trading halt to assess the impact of BP’s decision to cease fuel production at its Kwinana Refinery and convert it into an import terminal. BP’s decision has a direct impact on the company given that crude oil from its Cliff Head oil field is trucked to the refinery for processing. The company is also currently in the process of a farmout campaign to introduce a new partner for the drilling of satellite wells at Cliff Head.

– OK, they’re not a small cap, but AMP (ASX:AMP) is a lot smaller than it used to be. About four times smaller in fact, trading at $1.53 today, down from around the $5 mark from two years ago. But in surprising news, AMP confirmed it has received a conditional takeover offer from US private equity firm Ares Management Corporation.

At pains to say “there is no certainty that a transaction will eventuate”, AMP’s announcement comes two months after the company basically put itself on the market after failing to contain the fallout from several high profile resignations, demotions, royal commission scandals and sexual harassment complaints. Good luck with that one, Ares, but at least AMP made it into the top 10 gainers today – up 19.5%.

– iCar Asia (ASX:ICQ) has a great day, up around 32% to 43.5c after announcing impressive quarterly results with net operating cash outflow improving by 32 per cent and a couple of its markets (Malaysia and Thailand) turning earnings positive.

Although, those results came on the same day as a takeover offer from Chinese car classified site Autohome.