Episode 100: Joe Aston joins Live to talk Qantas, the L1-Platinum Takeover and James Hardie, Catapult Rockets, Interest Rates, the Power of Great Customer Service and Adir's McDonald's Incident
The guys are joined by Joe Aston to chat about Qantas, James Hardie, the growth of Rampart, Catapult's incredible run, slashed interest rates, and the importance of great customer service.
The Contrarians catchup
There’s lots for the guys to celebrate this week with the 100th episode and Catapult, where Adir is Executive Chairman, passing the $5 share price mark for the first time. The company is up 224% in the last 12 months.
Adir on Catapult’s share price rise: “One thing I've learned is if investors are criticising you, it's not because they're morons. That's your other customer base, you can't just hate on them. We needed to tell a better story of where the leverage in the business was and the scalability.”
Adir’s question to Adam: which of the following companies would you like to own for the next 10 years? Apple, Meta, Netflix, Alphabet, or Tesla. Listen in for their justifications.
Adam had great customer service at Aqua Shop, a swimming specialty store, in South Melbourne, where the owner went above and beyond to help his son find the right pair of goggles.
Adir tried to buy two ice creams in a McDonald’s drive thru but there was no one at the payment window, so he continued to the pick-up window hoping to pay, but they couldn’t accept payment there so the ice creams were free. Adir: “Do I give that one stars or five stars?”
Interest rates down, contrarian views up
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate by a quarter point to 3.85%, easing pressure on mortgage holders grappling with high living costs and elevated interest repayments.
Economists view the RBA decision as a sign that Australia’s central bankers believe inflation is being tamed and that there is no longer a need for a borrowing rate over 4% to constrain households.
Adam: “All these guys care about is house prices, nothing else. It’s so disgraceful.”
Adir: “This is the crazy paradox of the current economy. Really shocking consumer confidence, retailers are feeling some pain historically low unemployment, then this crazy global situation that's going on. It's not as simple as you portray it, but I still directionally agree with you that it's not the time for rate cuts.”
Joe Aston joins live to talk Qantas
Shortlisted for the 2025 ABIA Awards, General Nonfiction Book of the Year, and The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, Joe Aston (loved for his mind by listeners) joins The Contrarians again to discuss his book, ‘The Chairman's Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out’.
Adir: “My bigger issue with Qantas is the fact they're still able to charge $1500 one way on a flight between Melbourne and Sydney on those planes. That is unbelievable. My bigger issue is that in the international, highly competitive markets, they have some new plans and the fit outs on them are pretty bad compared to the competition that's flying the same routes.”
A L1-Platinum takeover
Platinum Asset Management is in discussions with L1 Capital around a merger.
L1 Capital said the potential merger would combine two complementary investment managers to create an investment business with approximately $18B in funds under management.
Meanwhile, James Hardie proposed an all-scrip merger with US decking company Azek, but the board rejected it, insisting on a cash component. Filings show Hardie raised its offer several times before securing the $14B deal.
Joe: “The only reason equity managers have any rights in Australia is because the News Corp experience in the 1990s ensured that the Australian market skewed the dual class voting shares. It would just be a debacle. I always come at these stories from the perspectives of shareholders, not entrepreneurs, but you've got to maintain the integrity of the market.”
Five other stories worth following:
Strava has acquired cycling app The Breakaway, just weeks after buying running app Runna. The company appears to be expanding its offering beyond tracking to training. The move suggests Strava is positioning itself as more of a one-stop shop for serious athletes, not just a social feed for workouts.
Five people are suing Workday, claiming its hiring algorithms discriminate against applicants over 40. They say they submitted hundreds of job applications but were rejected quickly every time, sometimes within minutes. The lawsuit raises questions about bias in automated hiring tools and how companies vet the technology they use.
Nike is returning to Amazon in the US after pulling out in 2019. The move, effective June 1, comes with higher prices for some products. Nike’s direct-to-consumer bet hasn’t paid off as expected, with global sales down 9% last quarter as competition from Adidas, New Balance, and On intensifies.
Enhanced Games, an Olympics-style competition allowing performance-enhancing drugs, is set for 2026 in Las Vegas. Backed by VC firm 1789 Capital, it offers $1M to athletes who break world records. Organisers say monitoring makes it safer than secret doping, though critics argue it risks normalising drug use in sport.
WeightWatchers has partnered with UK-based CheqUp, a provider of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, after filing for bankruptcy in the US. The partnership includes a tailored app for people on medication. WeightWatchers has seen membership decline as consumers shift from diet plans to pharmaceuticals, a trend even Oprah has publicly embraced.
This is about your coverage in general. I am worried that no one except Robert Reich appears to be publicizing the contempt of court provision in the budget bill (Section 70302). He notes it neutralizes the federal courts’ ability to curb the president’s lust for power by using a contempt charge to enforce their orders. This seems to me supremely dangerous. But no one is commenting on it. Why??