It’s the end of the day. Time to kick off the work shoes, throw on some slippers and puff purposefully on your bubble pipe by the fire as we unpack the best and worst of the ASX that you might have missed in all the excitement.

For a full market wrap up, check out Christian “Captain Chedward” Edwards’s’s’s remarkably thorough Closing Bell.

In the meantime, here’s all the news that no one else wanted to write about today, because we love you and we thought you really should know.

 

WHAT YOU MAY’VE MISSED TODAY

For starters, let’s take a quick look at PushPay (ASX:PPH), which was pushed into a Trading Pause this afternoon by an ASX announcement utterly bereft of detail, which is always a bit intriguing.

The company itself is a bit of an outlier in the “let’s make it easier for consumers to be separated from their money” space, in that its major market focus is on churches, where the weekly ask from the pulpit can range from “give what you can” through to “we’re shaking you down for 10% of your paypacket”.

It was L. Ron Hubbard who famously said “If you want to get rich, start a religion” – but that’s only because he lacked the foresight to see the option of slicing a nice little chunk off to the top of everyone else’s religions might be installed on the phone of every church-goer in the world.

To that end, PushPay has built a groovy, high-tech way to make gouging parishioners an even easier prospect, and it’s focussed that on the enormous US religious market – and, the company says, other non-profits and education providers, but we all know where the big bikkies are.

PPH’s core offering is for the US “faith sector” – where giving money is something of a national sport, and huge slabs of money intended for God end up spent on things like private jets, and male prostitutes.

And we’re not talking chump-change here – because absolutely eye-watering sums of money change hands every week. According to Giving USA, religious organisations received US$128.2 billion in contributions in 2019 – which equates to around US$390 for every man, woman and child in America.

Cleary, there’s a lot of money floating about in there, and so it’s no surprise then that there have been some rather persistent rumours of a takeover / acquisition of PushPay doing the rounds for months.

According to media speculation this morning, however, it seems that the rumour mill (which has been quiet on the subject since May or thereabouts) has fired up again, with talk of private equity firm BGH Capital readying to launch another stab at buying it.

BGH already owns some 20% of PushPay, which is up 12.7% for the week, and had put on 4.93% today before the watchdogs yanked on the handbrake.

And in late mail, PPH has issued an announcement of its own, confirming that its been approached again, but not naming any names.

“The Company has received a revised indicative non-binding proposal and is continuing to assess whether there is the potential for a transaction that is in the best interests of shareholders as a whole.

“There is no certainty that a transaction will proceed or as to the pricing or timing of any transaction. Pushpay will continue to keep the market updated in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.”

 

A FEW MORE ODDS’N’SODS

Elsewhere around the traps, Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) has announced that it completed drilling 11 holes at its Lucky Sevens gold project. The company hit quartz zones up to 30m in width, which it reckons is pretty exciting and could mean large slabs of mineralisation.

We wait with bated breath for Koonenberry to have a few more yanks on the Lucky Seven handle and see if it does turn out to be a jackpot after all.

Meanwhile, Duratec’s (ASX:DUR) gone and bought Wilson’s pipe fabricators, which – as you might have guessed, fabricates pipes.

Duratec’s Managing Director, Phil Harcourt, said: “Wilson’s Pipe Fabrication is a well-run business with strong growth prospects and a stable management team.

“We believe we can grow the business by introducing our services to their customers (3D reality modelling, asset condition surveys, cathodic protection and blast and painting services), expanding its services via our geographical footprint and expanding the business to other potential larger customers with new balance sheet and backing.”

It’s an entirely sensible purchase for Duratec – it’d be weird if a construction engineering mob didn’t have a practical use for its own reliable source of pipes – which is probably why it snapped up 100% of WPF for a maximum sale price of $18.0m ($9.0m initial consideration and up to a further $9.0m from a contingent payment).

Plus, WPF boasts a bunch of direct service agreements with several blue-chip oil and gas producers with long-standing relationships (c. 15+ years) – and that’s gotta be worth a penny or two.

And an independent review of Northern Minerals’ (ASX:NTU) Wolverine REE Mineral Resource has resulted in a 47% increase, after previously undisclosed reports that the company hit several rich, thick gains of Hugh Jackman’s ham acting, amounting to 50 bajillion Megatons at 11ppm of entirely fictional adamantium.

We jest, of course. The (actual) review actually increased NTU’s resources to an estimated 61,492 tonnes of TREO in 6.44 million tonnes @ 0.96% TREO, classified and reported according to the guidelines of the 2012 JORC Code.

Plus, there’s no way Hugh Jackman’s ever been a ham actor. Ever.

Except for all the times he was.

 

TRADING HALTS

Because sometimes you’ve just gotta say “enough is enough”, and take a little breather – and the easiest way to do that is by calling a Trading Halt, and going for a quick lie down.

Or, you need to follow the ASX rules. There’s also that. Which is important, because if you don’t, they get mad and send angry letters, which is never fun.

 

Queensland Pacific Metals (ASX:QPM) – QPM’s got news, pacifically to do with an investment, and an offtake agreement, which sounds like a potentially juicy little deal’s been struck.

Axiom Properties (ASX:AXI) – Because Major Strategic Investment + The ASX = No Trading until everyone knows the score, Axiom’s into a trading halt.

Magnum Mining and Exploration (ASX:MGU) – Magnum’s in a halt because of a major acquisition. $20 says it’s the rights to a Dirty Harry franchise reboot.

Mayur Resources (ASX:MRL) – Mayur’s called for a mid-quarter time-out, as it shuffles some substitutes off the bench to join the board and pass the hat round for a few bob to fix up the change sheds.

Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) – Resolution’s called a halt ahead of a share placement and investment, because New Year’s is coming up and fireworks are super-expensive.

GME Resources (ASX:GME) – GME’s having a capital raise, but you should all keep your pants on, because it’s not that GME. It’s our one. The local one. Nothing to do with Fortnite or reddit.

OpenLearning (ASX:OLL) – It’s a capital raise! Now, can anyone here use the phrase “Capital Raise” in a sentence? I hope so, because it’s going to be on the exam next week.

 

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