Companies who are getting it right: REA Group
REA Group Ltd (ASX: REA) shares rose 6.9% yesterday off the back of a strong half year earnings report. REA, known for taking donuts around to real estate agents to help them swallow frequent price hikes announced a 15% increase in revenue. With the share price jump of 6.9%, clearly investors believe it was worth every Krispy Kreme!
Riding a wave of healthy market conditions and executing well on product innovation and consumer engagement. Revenue was up 15% to $1.67 billion, EBITDA rose 18%, and NPAT jumped 23%, with the dividend lifted 31%.
Listings remained solid despite macro volatility, and buyer demand surged in the second half as interest rate cuts took hold. Importantly, REA’s NextGen listings—driven by AI enhancements—are already lifting user engagement and shareability, while add-ons like Audience Maximiser and Luxe are gaining real traction. Luxe, which delivers double the views of standard Premier listings, is seeing uptake across price points—not just prestige homes.
Financial Services and India also performed strongly, with Housing.com maintaining its lead in app downloads and broker submissions up 15% locally. Looking ahead, the business is guiding to double-digit yield growth again in FY26, supported by deeper product penetration, improving pricing power, and solid market momentum, especially as listing conditions normalise.
REA Group represents approximately 10% of the Betashares S&P/ASX Australian Technology ETF (ASX: ATEC). ATEC is a core holding in the Rask Invest and Rask Core growth portfolios.
Companies who are getting it right: Pinnacle Investment Management
Pinnacle Investment Management Ltd (ASX: PNI) jumped 9.5% yesterday. Long time Rask favourite – we’ve had many Pinnacle affiliated funds on the Australian Investors Podcast – continues to kick goals and be a leader in Australian funds management. Pinnacle yesterday reported a 49% increase in net profit.
This is a business truly after my own heart. It focuses on service. Whilst it is a funds management business you will hear Ian Macoun talk more about service through administration and distribution far more than fund performance. This attitude gives Pinnacle an advantage when partnering with global funds management talent. I saw this first hand when speaking with the excellent, Greg Dean from Langdon Equity Partners based in Toronto Canada who praised Pinnacle as a partner.
Pinnacle had a record-breaking year in 2025, growing profits by 49% and lifting funds under management to nearly $180 billion — a 63% jump from the year before. This was driven by strong investment performance from affiliates like Hyperion, as well as new partners like Life Cycle, which has already gathered over $15 billion in its first year.
Pinnacle has built a powerful platform that helps these managers grow by handling things like distribution, marketing, and client service. That’s helped them attract more investor money, build long-term relationships, and share in performance fees. Every affiliate is now profitable, and most are beating their investment benchmarks.
What really stood out this year was Pinnacle’s global expansion. The company is now operating across the UK, Canada, the U.S., and parts of Asia — and it’s doing it methodically. Instead of rushing in, Pinnacle has built local teams and infrastructure first, then partnered with high-quality fund managers like Life Cycle (UK) and Pacific Asset Management. They’ve also backed growth in private markets, like asset-based lending and commercial real estate, through affiliate Metrics.
This global growth strategy is expected to drive even more earnings in the future, especially as international investors come on board. Pinnacle’s model — combining great fund managers with world-class support — is working, both in Australia and overseas.
In the category of companies getting it wrong: ASX Ltd (ASX: ASX)
Well this is embarrassing.
The ASX buggered up and caused the TPG Telecom Group Ltd (ASX: TPG) share price to fall 4% by accidentally posting a trading announcement for an unrelated party.
TPG Capital – an unlisted private equity firm – made an offer for a business called Infomedia…this offer was errantly put up as an announcement on TPG Telecom…close enough!
The ASX reversed all trades placed but it didn’t act quickly enough to avoid a 4% fall in the TPG share price. You can understand how investors were spooked. They were still digesting TPGs news from yesterday, and then they see a flurry of strange announcements, trading halts, followed by a 119 page document saying it’s acquiring a completely unrelated business?
Mistakes happen and boy I feel for the person who accidentally uploaded that doc. But it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. ASIC are investigating the ASX, a prominent fund manager was in the AFR yesterday saying they were shorting the stock and a new entrant in the form of Cboe is threatening the ASX’s monopolistic hold on Australian markets. The ASX have had it so good for so long and have squandered the opportunity to build value, it’s hard to feel empathy for them.
US markets overnight
- S&P 500 = +0.73%
- Nasdaq = +1.21%
- Aussie dollar up 0.5% to 65.03 US cents
- Iron down 0.5% to $101.95 US a tonne
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