Abbott reviews veto for state-owned companies
The Abbott government is considering a significant change in its approach to Chinese foreign investment to ease restraints on trusted companies in the hope of accelerating a free trade deal worth billions of dollars. The Aus
Tax office cuts mining profits unit
The Australian Taxation Office has cut the staff who were to ensure firms paid their mining tax even though the tax is still law. The West
Australia-Japan trade deal annoys US
The United States is irritated Australia sealed a bilateral trade deal with Japan at a time when American trade officials are in Tokyo trying to iron-out differences to progress the proposed Tran-Pacific Partnership agreement. The Fin
WA sign cattle trial with China
One of China’s biggest iron ore ports could soon be unloading cattle to Western Australia, marking a symbolic shift in the traditional relationship away from a reliance on mining toward more investment in agriculture. The Fin
Visa rules a hurdle for China
A Chinese conglomerate which controls a big slice of WA farmland wants visa restrictions lifted to make it easier to run its operations using foreign labour. The West
Obeid denies lobbying for personal gain
Disgraced former Labor MP Eddie Obeid has said he was just doing his duty to prevent an embarrassing political incident when he asked three NSW premiers to intervene in a with a company linked ot his family. The Fin
Aloca suffers $190m loss on plant closures
Restructuring charges on smelter closures and curtailments at Point Henry in Geelong and plants in Brazil and the US forced Alcoa into the red in the first quarter. The Aus
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: David Jones chairman Gordon Cairns says he would consider other offers from one of several global retailers eyeing Australia’s expansion, raising the possibility the $2.15 billion friendly takeover from South Africa’s Woolworths could be trumped.
Page 9: Defence Minister David Johnston has revealed the state of Australia’s six submarines got so bad that the Navy did not have one seaworthy sub for up to five months. Over a separate eight months all six were unavailable for weeks at a time.
Page 11: The royal commission into union corruption may recommend union officials face the same scrutiny as company directors, the government appointed counsel assisting has told a preliminary hearing in Sydney.
Page 13: Internet-driven entertainment is not going to kill television any time soon, says DreamWorks founder and chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Page 15: China should allow some financially stressed institutions to go under but try to do so without causing a systemic crisis, the IMF says in its latest assessment of the vulnerabilities in the world’s financial system.
Page 18: Record gold bullion prices seem to be a thing of the past, but gold jewellery – and especially Australian goldfields jewellery – always has the power to surprise.
Page 25: Eftpos is scrambling to retain its relevance and regain market share as consumers switch to buying online and using contactless payments.
Page 25: Morgan Stanley’s local institutional equities division, the fourth-largest by market share, posted its best profit resultinfiveyearsin2013, but conceded there was still work to be done in its wealth management arm.
Page 27: ExxonMobil hopes to have its $US19 billion ($20.4 billion) liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea running at full capacity four months after its “mid-2014” start-up date, says Decie Autin, project executive at PNG LNG for the US oil giant.
Page 27: US oil major Conoco Phillips is poised to start a major drilling campaign off northern Australia, in a bid to firm up gas resources that could be used in a long-awaited expansion of its liquefied natural gas plant in Darwin.
The Australian
Page 3: Technology entrepreneurs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have become overnight billionaires, pipping the likes of retail king Gerry Harvey — on paper at least.
Page 4: The royal commission into unions has sent an early signal to the federal government that it will recommend tougher sanctions on union officials, requiring them to meet more onerous legal obligations than company directors.
Page 4: Western Australia’s public sector unions should follow the lead of the CFMEU, which is preparing thousands of members for cuts to their rates of pay, a Barnett minister said yesterday.
Page 6: Australia will need massive budget savings of about $90 billion if it is to stabilise its government debt by 2030, International Monetary Fund estimates show.
Page 6: Australian beaches, native wildlife and rainforests are being used as part of a major new tourism campaign in China to increase the number of visitors from the world’s fastest growing traveller market.
Page 17: Woolworths Holdings boss Ian Moir says he won’t gut David Jones to recoup the costs of a $2.15 billion takeover offer that has blown Myer’s proposed “merger of equals’’ out of the water, pledging instead to create one of the most powerful retailers in the southern hemisphere.
Page 17: Ten Network has appointed Paul Anderson as chief operating officer, positioning him as chief executive Hamish McLennan’s right-hand man.
Page 18: Energy Resources of Australia’s long-term future as a uranium producer takes shape in the December half with the planned lodgement of a critical environmental impact statement into the development of the Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine.
Page 18: Worleyparsons chief executive Andrew Wood has foreshadowed more job losses as part of a major restructure that splits the engineering group into three business lines, in a move aimed at appeasing investors following a string of profit warnings.
Page 19: A private company formed by Padbury Mining and backed by a major investor will fund the $6 billion Oakajee port and rail project in Western Australia, breathing new life into the mothballed project that was once in the sights of the Chinese and Japanese.
Page 19: The deal with China that has now become the Abbott government’s top trade target should open the door to Chinese investments up to $1 billion, says Financial Services Council chief executive John Brogden.
Page 19: Goldman Sachs’s Australian arm has posted a more than fivefold increase in profit after stronger income from its trading unit and a streamlining of its local reporting entities.
Page 27: Lending to build new homes spiked in February while the proportion of loans to first home buyers fell to the second lowest level ever recorded, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Page 31: Internet service provider iiNet has experienced a fairytale ride by growing from a garage-based hobby in 1993 to one of Australia’s biggest telecommunications companies in 2014 with a $1.15 billion market capitalisation.
The West Australian
Page 5: Mt Claremont’s Challenge Stadium – the former home to World Swimming Championships, the WA Institute of Sport and basketball and netball triumphs – will get a $1.33 million facelift.
Page 22: Questions are growing over Moly Mines’ plans for its $76 million cash pile after it sacked its two most senior executives and admitted it faced suspension from trading after failing to find a new project to underpin its listing.
Page 22: Sirius Resources expects to wrap up debt funding for its Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper project after setting a May 9 date for a shareholder meeting to consider the $200 million deal to swap Mark Creasy’s 30 per cent stake for Sirius shares and $28 million cash.
Page 55: Thailand’s PTTEP hopes to sort out the ownership structure of its Timor Sea assets, including the big Cash-Maple gas fields, by the end of the year but says it is open to retaining a minority stake.
Page 55: Less than five years after a star-studded opening in the Wesley Quarter, the Burberry fashion label is pulling out of WA.
Page 56: Perth-based InterMet Resources has joined the groing list of struggling small-cap miners jumping into the world of tech, yesterday announcing plans to buy US cloud-based recruitment company 1-Page.
