Lotto: Two ticketholders scoop $1 million each in Wednesday's Millionaire Medley
Two ticketholders are instant millionaires after taking out Millionaire Medley's top prize on Wednesday.
Each Aussie will walk away with $1m after matching the six numbers needed to secure the division one jackpot.
Wednesday's division one wins will see $1 million make its way to the two Aussies bank accounts.
Luck continued in division two, with seven players from across the nation pocketing more than $7,900.
Division three delivered significant hauls of $567.45 to 151 players.
The winning numbers for draw #4549 are 5, 17, 23, 29, 6 and 36. The supplementary numbers are 14 and 2.
Good fortune comes after two WA players — hailing from opposite ends of Perth — scored $1m each in Monday's Millionaire Medley game.
The winning tickets were purchased from Lakers News in Lakelands and Clarkson Lucky Lottery.
Punters will next get a chance to win big in Thursday's $20m Powerball draw, with tickets available until 6pm in-store and online.
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West Australian
40 minutes ago
- West Australian
Superannuation wealth tax ‘a threat' to funding of new unicorns as Escalante moves to mop up VGW
The Federal Government's proposed wealth tax on superannuation has been described as a threat to the emergence of unicorns such as Laurence Escalante's WA-based gaming group Virtual Gaming Worlds. With many investors funding plays such as VGW from their self-managed super funds, the earnings hit on super balances over $3 million is seen potentially depriving start-ups of a key source of development capital. Mr Escalante used millions of dollars raised from hundreds of small and high-net worth backers to build VGW into one of Australia's fastest-growing and most profitable private companies. On Monday, the former financial planner announced a $960m bid to take full ownership of VGW by buying out the 30 per cent of the public, unlisted company he does not own at $5.05 a share from some 700 minority shareholders. One of his early supporters, an investor who is sitting on tens of millions of dollars of profit on VGW shares bought for less than 10 cents apiece, said the Government was 'off the mark' with its proposed move on wealthy superannuants. He and other big minority investors in VGW are mainly invested in the group via their self-managed super funds. 'This Government wants to tax quite heavily the people in the super funds, and that's where these small companies get started,' said the investor, who asked not to be identified. 'There won't be as much money available for start-ups.' Mr Escalante's proposed buyout, launched through his Lance East family office, comes as VGW confronts a major threat to its lucrative operating model from a US regulatory crackdown that is reining in its runaway profits. The group has raked in billions of dollars by using loopholes in US laws banning internet gambling to deliver online 'social' casinos and poker machine games such as Chumba Casino, LuckyLand slots and Global Poker. Under its sweepstakes model, customers buy virtual gold coins that allow them to play VGW's games but have no outside value. However, buyers of most gold coin packages also get bonus 'sweeps coins', which as well as being used to play the games are redeemable for cash in most of the US and Canada. US States are now moving against the group, claiming the games are illegal because they are generating cash winnings for players. Since December, VGW has quit Nevada and Delaware, and flagged its withdrawal from New York, in the face of the pushback. The regulatory crackdown is already hurting earnings, with VGW warning of a 15 per cent hit to its second-half profit. Mr Escalante's opulent lifestyle — he has translated his wealth into a private jet, super cars, luxury boats and swanky properties — and showy and sometimes angry social media posts had already raised doubts about whether he could win over the big institutional shareholders needed to support a stock market listing in the US or Australia. But it is the threat to what has been an enormously successful operating model that has most likely finished off lingering hopes of a float for investors who have been limited to selling stock via an illiquid over-the-counter trading platform. 'It's the model ... the likelihood of regulatory action, which are we starting to see,' a prominent Perth businessman said. While Mr Escalante's 'behaviour and lifestyle doesn't help', despite global stock markets being awash with such 'characters', a listing would have more chance with a 'safer and less vulnerable business model', the businessman said. There is no doubt that Mr Escalante, who founded VGW as a 28-year-old in 2010, has delivered in spades for his investors. The company paid its first dividend — a modest $2.8 million — in early 2019 off the back of a $19.8m profit and $179m of revenue for the December half-year in 2018. COVID-19 lit a fire under the business as uptake of its games in the US soared during lockdowns. Over the past four years, VGW has returned more than $1.3b to its shareholders, with Mr Escalante pocketing the lion's share due to his majority ownership. He will receive a further $200m from the $286m of interim and special dividends set to be paid for the 2025 financial year. VGW's two independent directors have determined that the offer price, which will be reduced by the dividends, recognises the company's value 'after taking into account its medium and longer-term potential and the ongoing risks relating to VGW's business and operating environment'. Mr Escalante's offer was endorsed after an earlier pitch of $3.50 of $4 a share was rejected as too low. However, it still may not be enough to get the buyout across the line, with some long-standing shareholders still reckoning VGW is worth more and disputing the inclusion of the proposed dividends in the offer price. 'A few of the shareholders who have got pretty good holdings feel as if it's an unreasonable offer, they feel as if it should be more,' the VGW shareholder said. The buyout documents are expected to be sent to shareholders by early July, with a vote to be called in August. Mr Escalante was not available for comment this week. Disclosing the buyout offer on Monday, he said it represented 'an efficient opportunity to allow those shareholders looking to monetise their investment for cash to do so'.
Herald Sun
an hour ago
- Herald Sun
Barry FitzGerald: Katanning ticks all the boxes for an Ausgold re-rate
'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. After its dramatic rise in the opening months of the year to record levels, the Aussie gold price has settled into a bit of a groove around the $5,200/oz level. Nothing wrong with that. It's a fantastic price and delivers fat margins to even our highest cost gold mines. And it is not to suggest that gold can't take off again and set new highs or fall significantly for that matter. The observation is that for the last six weeks or so the Aussie price has been as steady as it could be in these turbulent times. It means that share prices of ASX-listed gold producers and developers have also gone into a sideways trading pattern. Need to differentiate So more than has been the case in recent times when gold took off to record levels, the producers and developers now need to differentiate themselves from the pack with strong newsflow of the re-rating inducing type. It means that if the gold price continues to trade sideways, the stock involved has a reason to go higher. Alternatively, if the gold price heads south, the damage to the stock could be more limited than it would have been otherwise. Taking all that on board, Garimpeiro had a look at his calendar during the week to find which of the gold producers/developers have re-rating event(s) on the horizon. Ausgold stands out Ausgold (ASX:AUC) stood out for the pending release this month of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the development of its Katanning gold project, a three-hour drive from Perth in WA's southwest Yilgarn region. Katanning is one of the biggest undeveloped gold deposits in the country at 3.04 million ounces and has previously been scoped as having the potential to produce 136,000 ounces annually from open-cut ore sources for more than 10 years. All-in sustaining costs were put at $A1,549 and preproduction capital costs weighed in at just under $300m. But those are 2023 figures and things will have changed, including the reserve component of the resource thanks to infill drilling work. Gold prices have increased dramatically since those 2023 figures but so have construction costs. Having said that, the expectation is that the DFS will confirm Katanning as a very robust project with a super quick capex payback capability. Take that and the scale of the project – production in the early years will be higher still because initial higher grade ores - and Ausgold's $240 million market cap at 67c share looks to be on the mean side of things. The company has the lowest resource ounce valuation metric of its peer group for no apparent reason, except perhaps the project has been in the works since 2010 under Ausgold ownership. So the story of the resource growth since, and the pending release of the DFS leading into a development decision by year end, has been overlooked to a large degree by the market on a fatigue basis alone. Katanning momentum Momentum for Katanning is now the order of the day under John Dorward, Ausgold's executive chairman who arrived on the scene in May last year. A can-do sort of guy, Dorward was the former president and CEO of TSX-listed Roxgold, a West African gold group acquired by fellow Canadian Fortuna Silver Mines in an all-scrip deal worth $US884 million in 2021. Two weeks in the job at Ausgold and Dorward put Katanning on the development pathway by pulling in $38 million in equity, including $1m from his own pocket. That is being spent getting to the DFS stage and on a three-pronged strategy of establishing a bigger mining reserve component in the mineral resource estimate, extending the scale of the resource and making regional gold discoveries. Morgans' 94c target Morgans' veteran analyst Chris Brown has a 12-month price target on the stock of 94c. 'Our expectation is that delivery of a DFS broadly confirming or improving on the preliminary feasibility study, and employing a higher gold price, should prove positive for the share price,' Brown said. He also flagged that a final investment decision on a project development – expected by the end of the year - should also prove positive depending on the terms of the project's financing package. ''Our valuation will likely lift with the delivery of the DFS, and again when the final investment decision is taken,'' Brown said. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the columnist and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article. Originally published as Barry FitzGerald: Katanning ticks all the boxes for an Ausgold re-rate
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
London gold executive says Perth Mint 'well regarded', two years after damaging reports
A high-ranking executive from the London-based World Gold Council says the Perth Mint remains "well regarded" internationally, two years after its reputation as a refiner was questioned over the "doping" of gold bars. An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners revealed the mint sold gold to China that met broader industry standards of 99.99 per cent pure gold, but not stricter standards for silver content at the Shanghai Gold Exchange. It also uncovered governance failures by the WA government-owned Gold Corporation relating to anti-money laundering laws, which prompted a federal parliamentary inquiry of the 126-year-old mint, resulting in 10 recommendations last year. Perth Mint chairman Sam Walsh took responsibility for "historical shortcomings" when the mint's annual report was tabled in state parliament in September, noting 60,000 customer records had been remediated as part of a $34 million government program to improve anti-money laundering processes. In light of the mint's recent history, the ABC asked the World Gold Council's chief strategy officer, Terry Heymann, who visited Kalgoorlie and Perth this week for the premiere of a new documentary about WA gold mining, if its international reputation had been damaged. "I'm not going to comment specifically on the details, but the Perth Mint is very well regarded, as indeed is ABC Refinery (in Sydney)," he said. "Australia has two leading refineries and that really gives confidence to the market that the gold coming out of those refineries is to the expected standard, both in terms of the quality, the purity of the gold and responsible sourcing." Mr Heymann said the responsible sourcing of gold remained a focus of the World Gold Council, adding that "there is always room for continuous improvement". The Perth Mint's reputation was restored somewhat in March when it was appointed by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) as a refinery referee — one of just seven across the globe responsible for quality control of the world's precious metals. The accreditation process took several years and will make the mint responsible for assessing the standards of third-party refiners. "It speaks to the quality of our products," Perth Mint CEO Paul Graham told the ABC in March. "It's something we're very proud of and it places us among the most trusted refiners globally. "We're the only ones in the southern hemisphere who have achieved the referee appointment." Mr Graham replaced Jason Waters in November 2023 after his predecessor acknowledged issues around the diluted gold it supplied to China were "damaging and unacceptable". But Mr Graham denied gold bars had intentionally been diluted or "doped", claiming the media had "misrepresented what the Perth Mint has been doing historically". "The bars are never 100 per cent pure," he said. "I think what was reported around doping, which is a very unfortunate term, isn't necessarily correct." Mr Graham said it was common practice to top up bars with silver or base metals, such as copper. "What we try and do at the Perth Mint is get as close as we can to that 100 per cent," he said. "We believe today that our bars are as pure as any, if not the purest in the market, where we're currently getting bars out at to the tune of 99.996 purity. "The bars that were in question previously were around the 99.992 or 99.993 mark, so we have improved through technology and our focus, but we never believed we were intentionally doping the bars under the standards." Meanwhile, the Perth Mint has reported strong demand for its product as the Australian dollar gold price continues to trade at record highs. It soared above $5,000 an ounce for the first time in April — the same week US President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs. The Perth Mint sold 43,714 ounces of gold and 723,641oz of silver in April, up from 40,537oz of gold and 713,306oz of silver in March. Demand softened in May when the mint sold 28,244oz of gold and 496,707oz of silver. The mint's depository held 308,899oz of gold at the end of May — equivalent to 9.61 tonnes — worth more than $1.5 billion at current prices. Mr Heymann described gold as an "economic safe harbour", saying the metal had "proven security and resilience". He said US economic policies were only one factor in a perfect storm that also included conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. "You look at the sustained demand that there is for gold, so much of that being underpinned by central banks around the world, who have had unprecedented levels of buying," he said. "Why are they buying gold? It gives them confidence in helping to manage the financial security of the countries they're responsible for. "Of course, government policies, including the US, play into that but there's no one specific indicator that drives the gold price. "It is a reflection of what's going on around the world."
