1. 64 BUSINESS SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12 2015 COURIERMAIL.COM.AU
BCME01Z01MA - V1
up for cash as part of the bank’s
wider $5 billion capital raising
— the second biggest in the
nation’s history — launched
last month.
It comes as the banking
regulator, the Australian Pru-
dential Regulation Authority,
pushes major lenders to in-
crease their capital levels to
guard against a housing crash
or fresh financial crisis.
The CBA had already raised
$2.1 billion from institutional
ASX200 ALLORDINARIES BEST&WORST $A OIL BRENT IRONORE
5071.10
5096.30 $52.00
$3.60
48.22
59.01
70.6
5060
5073
5085
5098
5110
The market closed lower in a
choppy session bereft of strong
leads.
-20.70 -0.40% +0.4 +0.51% +1.54 +3.29% +0.83 +1.42%
-23.90 -0.46%
RIO TINTO LTD
INCITEC PIVOT
US CENTS $US PER BARREL $US PER TONNE
10 11 12 1 2 3 4
¢6 ¢
ASX
50
+.73 +1.4%
-.10 -2.7%
$$
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PAGE 67
IT IS not often that Australia’s un-
bounded emptiness and diffuse popu-
lation are seen as a great commercial
opportunity.
But they have been for global aviation
giant Boeing and its Brisbane-based sub-
sidiary, Insitu Pacific, which offers re-
motely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS).
“The term drones indicates that
there’s not someone controlling it, but
there is someone actually controlling
RPAS,” says Scott Marriot, Insitu’s busi-
ness development manager.
The company has supplied RPAS in
industries from mining and energy to
rural fire brigades since 2009. It services
the Asia Pacific region from India
through South Korea and Japan.
Insitu’s commercial program director
Dale McDowall said Boeing saw nothing
but opportunity in Australia.
“We’re a mature country with a stable
government and legal environment,” he
said.
“And with a progressive regulator in
CASA, we have a better opportunity in
Australia than we have in the US and Eu-
rope.”
Insitu’s model can operate more than
100km beyond the visual line of sight, Mr
McDowall said.
The craft are deployed by CASA- cer-
tified operators working under ex-com-
mercial/defence pilots.
The company employs about 20 pi-
lots. The various craft are “highly mobile,
and quite deployable”, Mr Marriott said,
adding that the company often shipped
them with their teams to countries
throughout Asia.
ELIZABETH MARX
FLYGUYS.Insituchiefremotepilot
NigelMeadowsandremotepilot
operatorWilliamMcNamarawitha
CT110.Picture:MarkCalleja
DRONE, DRONE ON
THE RANGE
CBA capital raising falls flat
HOUSEHOLD investors have
turned their backs on the Com-
monwealth Bank’s $5 billion
cash call as volatility continues
to stalk the stockmarket.
The nation’s biggest bank
has moved to wrap up its capi-
tal raising program earlier than
planned with analysts tipping
more wild swings on global
sharemarkets next week.
The CBA yesterday an-
nounced it had raised $1.5 bil-
lion from retail, or household,
investors — half the sum it was
targeting from that group.
Rights to about 21 million
shares were not taken up by
those investors and were in-
stead offered to the big end of
town.
The CBA had planned to
carry out a shortfall bookbuild
on Monday, allowing insti-
tutional investors to submit
their bids for any stock left on
the shelf by “mum and dad” in-
vestors.
But the group instead asked
institutional investors to submit
their bids by noon yesterday.
The bank is expected to up-
date investors on the outcome
of the shortfall share auction
on Monday before the market
opens. Retail investors were hit
investors in the first part of its
capital raising program, com-
pleted last month.
Retail investors were of-
fered new shares for $71.50
each.
When the bank launched
the offer — at the same time as
it handed down its full-year re-
sults in mid August — its share
price was above $82. It then fell
significantly, sliding below the
offer price in intraday trading
on several days in the past
three weeks. On Thursday it
closed at $75.13.
IG market analyst Angus
Nicholson said the offer had
coincided with a spate of ex-
treme volatility on global mar-
kets that had hit the Australian
banking sector particularly
hard.
The ASX 200 is off 7.4 per
cent since the CBA announced
the capital raising.
“Investors have really start-
ed to reprice their expectations
for the Australian banking sec-
tor and where they think the
Australian economy is going,”
Mr Nicholson said.
Mr Nicholson said the
CBA’s move to complete the
book build early seemed to be
aimed at avoiding choppy mar-
ket conditions next week.
TERRY MCCRANN P67
JOHN DAGGE
TARGET
$3b
ACHIEVED
$1.5b
SLIPPERYROAD
Retailfundraising