Financial Services

Gina Rinehart has been awarded this year's Telstra WA business woman of the year for her work in transforming Hancock Prospecting into the country's fourth largest exporter of iron ore.

Paladin Energy officers Rick Crabb and Gillian Swaby have reached a settlement deal on their action against collapsed margin lending business Lift Capital Partners, which sold a parcel of shares without permission.

Shares in West Perth-based Red Sky Energy grew as much as 18 per cent in trading this morning following the announcement of further coal seam acquisitions across prospective basins in northern New South Wales.

Australia's big four banks have today matched the central bank with an increase of their standard variable mortgage interest rate by 25 basis points.

Perth-based Royal Resources has signed a $50 million binding deal with a Singaporean company for the joint development of the Razorback magnetite iron ore deposit in South Australia.

Shares in Apex Minerals have surged after the gold miner upgraded its resource estimate at its Wiluna mine in Western Australia.

East Perth-based explorer Westgold Resources says it will press ahead with an exploration program at its Rover project in the Northern Territory, after successfully raising $22 million.

Moly Mines has today announced the terms of its $C31.5 million ($A33 million) capital raising, a necessity for the restructure of its $US150 million financing facility.

Western Australia's unemployment rate has risen to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 per cent in September, bucking the national 0.1 per cent fall, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

A NEW association representing not-for-profit employers in the non-government sector has been given approval by the state's Industrial Relations Commission to become a registered employer organisation.

Capital raisings by WA stocks were subdued during the September quarter as companies with larger equity appetites headed overseas.

Industry dismay over RBA rate rise  The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lift the official cash rate has caused surprise and dismay from various lobby groups, with one from WA saying the central bank has acted too hastily.

Small and large investors are going to have to get used to a new paradigm as the GFC fallout continues in 2010.

AS a pack of reporters thrust their dictaphones in front of Troy Buswell late last week, the treasurer remarked that it reminded him of something other than a press conference.

THE number of Western Australian companies considering listing on the local stock exchange may be gaining momentum, but the frantic activity from a couple of years ago is not likely to occur any time soon.

Directors in Western Australian-listed companies continued to embrace the free share-trading period after the black-out period concluded with the end of the reporting season.

INVESTORS in several failed Great Southern schemes are facing the double indignity of losing control of their assets and receiving a hefty tax bill.

Flouting basic economic principles can have disastrous consequences.

Compulsory voting raises the hackles of many people but could there be merit in extending the concept to local councils and companies?

Claremont-based explorer Australia Minerals and Mining Group has added momentum to the re-emergence of companies seeking to list on the ASX, recently lodging its prospectus for a $7.5 million initial public offer.

Shares in Perth-based United Minerals Corporation have been placed in a trading halt pending an announcement over a potential change of control.

Demand for home loans in Western Australia has fallen 4.5 per cent in August as first home buyers retreat from the market, new figures show.

The corporate watchdog says it will start civil proceedings against a Perth financial advisory firm after clients invested $14 million into the failed Westpoint Group.

Nedlands-based explorer Integra Mining has confirmed it has raised $40 million, which will partly be used for the development of its Randalls gold project in the Goldfields.

Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications will receive a $21 million boost after revealing plans to clean up its capital structure.

IT services provider Empired will build on its presence in Victoria after securing a $3 million contract with the state government's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for infrastructure outsourcing services.

Lithium producer Galaxy Resources gained as much as 16 per cent in trading this morning after announcing the completion of a $65 million institutional capital raising to be used on its Mt Cattlin mine at Ravensthorpe and a Chinese lithium project.

Western Australia is likely to be one of the few developed economies in the world to avoid a recession during the global economic slowdown, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA said today in its quarterly economic snapshot.

Budget cuts cost 471 jobs at RPH; Perth high on list of powerful; Rates move sends wrong sign; Extra malt elevates GrainCorp; ConsMin misled exchange on Mindy Mindy, tribunal told

The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lift the official cash rate has caused surprise and dismay from various lobby groups, with one from WA saying the central bank has acted too hastily.

Perth man Graeme Rundle has been charged by the corporate watchdog over his role as the chief financial controller in the failed Westpoint Group.

Australia has become the first western economy in the world to lift interest rates with the Reserve Bank of Australia today increasing the official cash rate by 25 basis points.