Morning Headlines

M2’s Bowen is ready for fight with TPG for iiNet

M2 Group founder Vaughan Bowen is confident the telecommunications provider’s counter offer for iiNet, which values it at $1.6 billion, is a good deal for the company’s shareholders, but anticipates rival bidder TPG Telecom will fight back. The Fin

McAleese in Atlas contract talks

Transport group McAleese says it is in discussions with its major client Atlas Iron about continuing mining and haulage activities after the Pilbara miner suspended operations in the face of tumbling iron ore prices. The Aus

Trucks on standby in rail feud

The State’s grain freight rail network is days away from grinding to a halt, with CBH and Brookfield Rail still at odds over an interim access deal. The West

Murray sees threat to AAA rating

Financial system inquiry chairman David Murray has warned the federal government could lose its prized AAA credit rating because of the deteriorating budget and the downgrade would hit the large banks. The Fin

BHP reveals $522m Singapore tax bill

BHP Billiton is facing a tax bill of $522 million on its Singapore marketing operations, while further audits are continuing, the company has told the Senate committee investigating corporate tax avoidance. The Fin

Sectors plan new penalty rates push

The retail, hospitality and pharmacy sectors have ratcheted up their campaign to overhaul penalty rates for working outside traditional hours, with plans to unveil new evidence that wage costs are driving employers to change opening hours on weekends. The Aus

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Financial system inquiry chairman David Murray has warned the federal government could lose its prized AAA credit rating because of the deteriorating budget and the downgrade would hit the large banks.

The Obama administration is pressuring the Abbott government to back away from plans to target American technology multinationals with higher taxes in next month’s federal budget.

Page 3: Gina Rinehart’s estranged daughter has told a court her emails were deleted during a Federal Court proceeding concerning a family trust.

Page 10: BHP Billiton is facing a tax bill of $522 million on its Singapore marketing operations, while further audits are continuing, the company has told the Senate committee investigating corporate tax avoidance.

Page 12: The winning bidders at the $660 million carbon emissions reduction auctions last week have told the federal government it cannot meet its climate change targets by Direct Action alone.

Australia needs to set a more realistic target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 than the 30 per cent recommended by the Climate Change Authority, according to a leading energy researcher.

Page 15: M2 Group founder Vaughan Bowen is confident the telecommunications provider’s counter offer for iiNet, which values it at $1.6 billion, is a good deal for the company’s shareholders, but anticipates rival bidder TPG Telecom will fight back.

Restructuring groups 333 Capital and McGrathNicol have emerged as advisers to McAleese and its lenders, as the transport group tries to keep its biggest customer, Atlas Iron, afloat.

Page 18: Despite surging new home building, tumbling aluminium premiums have cast doubts over CSR’s earnings prospects ahead of the building products group’s full-year result next month.

Page 21: Fortescue Metals Group’s $2.3 billion junk-bond sale last week was orchestrated by Franklin Resources Inc and Capital Group, allowing the US money managers to gain a greater claim on the Australian miner’s assets as other investors were left fighting for scraps.

The Australian

Page 1: The nation’s wealthiest families are collecting the lion’s share of an $8 billion tax break on negative gearing, according to research that escalates the political fight over how to balance the federal budget.

Page 3: Scientists have rescinded the findings of a “blockbuster” Australian study after discovering that chemicals discovered deep under the Pilbara — interpreted as the first signs of complex life on Earth — were introduced by the researchers’ drills.

Page 4: A key Australian Federal Police anti-corruption taskforce will be given new powers to investigate large-scale international tax avoidance under an Abbott government plan to entrench its tax integrity operations.

The government has vowed to push ahead with its Medical Research Future Fund and Health Minister Sussan Ley has revealed it would be partly funded by savings from a review of Medicare.

Page 5: Coal-seam gas group Metgasco will request a meeting with the NSW government and police to ensure protesters do not disrupt drilling when it recommences in coming months, following the company’s court win last week.

Page 19: The retail, hospitality and pharmacy sectors have ratcheted up their campaign to overhaul penalty rates for working outside traditional hours, with plans to unveil new evidence that wage costs are driving employers to change opening hours on weekends.

Page 20: Investors touring the Santos-run Gladstone LNG plant last week were greeted with signs declaring that the first LNG cargo from the $US18.5 billion ($24bn) project would sail on July 31 — about three months earlier than the latest targets recently revealed by the company.

Page 21: Transport group McAleese says it is in discussions with its major client Atlas Iron about continuing mining and haulage activities after the Pilbara miner suspended operations in the face of tumbling iron ore prices.

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group has continued a post bond-raising surge, yesterday logging its biggest one-day gain since 2012 as Chinese iron ore futures extended a recent rally.

Page 29: Centrelink’s new $1 billion-plus IT system could be doomed if politicians don’t heed lessons of the past, cave in to public pressure and rush to deliver undercooked projects, analysts warn.

The West Australian

Page 11: Nannies will be subsidised for shift workers and parents in the bush struggling to find child care.

Page 15: Tony Abbott continues to trail badly in the polls amid extraordinary pessimism about next month’s Federal Budget.

Business: The iron ore price has bounced back towards $US60 a tonne to take its recovery over the past three weeks to 25 per cent, injecting much needed momentum into efforts by haulage provider McAleese and fellow contractors to try to rescue Atlas Iron.

The State’s grain freight rail network is days away from grinding to a halt, with CBH and Brookfield Rail still at odds over an interim access deal.

Norton Gold Fields’ 2000 minority investors are set for a special windfall after the Kalgoorlie gold miner’s controlling shareholder beefed up its mop-up takeover bid by 15 per cent.

Operated by Blue Ocean Monitoring, the Slocum Glider has been surveying tailings piped out to sea from Newmont Mining’s Batu Hijau copper-gold mine.

A major survey has shed light on the growing divide in farming in WA after two bumper harvests in parts of the Wheatbelt.