Property could turn into ‘worst investment’
Property looks set to become the ‘‘worst investment’’ over coming decades because of a looming bust in apartment prices and the reality that official interest rates won’t stay low forever. Deloitte Access Economics economist Chris Richardson describes the economy as being trapped in a ‘‘Faustian bargain’’ with low borrowing costs and resurgent commodity prices. The Fin
PLO twist in bank rate rigging case
Australian banks being sued by American hedge funds for allegedly manipulating financial market interest rates will try to knock out the US court case by advocating a legal precedent set by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The Fin
Oil, gas giants to report lower revenue
Oil Search, Woodside Petroleum and Santos are due to report September quarter numbers this week, with revenues expected to be down across the board from a year earlier as the oil and gas sector remains badly out of favour with big sections of the market. The Fin
Crown staff held in China for ‘gambling crimes’
Chinese authorities have launched a criminal investigation into staff at Crown Resorts and confirmed they have detained a number of Australians for gambling-related offences. The Fin
Energy players’ ‘debt cost to soar’
The energy sector could be hit with higher debt costs if a federally driven proposal to scrap a controversial regime for reviewing electricity and gas network revenue decisions goes ahead, the institutional arms of two major banks have warned. The Aus
Masters case goes to arbitration
US hardware giant Lowe’s seems to have succumbed to the inevitable of striking a deal through arbitration with its former partner Woolworths over the winding up of their failed hardware chain Masters after not appealing a ruling by the Federal Court last month. The Aus
WA ‘most unequal’ as wage gap widens
WA is the country’s “most unequal” State and faces a widening gap between average weekly earnings and the incomes of its poor. The WA Council of Social Service’s annual cost of living report, to be released today, shows rising unemployment and increasing casualisation of the State’s workforce are putting pressure on low-income households. The West
Green shoots for Griffin coal
The financial bleeding at troubled Collie coal miner Griffin continued in the three months to July but there are signs the Indian-owned group’s fortunes could improve. The West
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: Chinese authorities have launched a criminal investigation into staff at Crown Resorts and confirmed they have detained a number of Australians for gambling-related offences.
Former CSIRO physicist John O’Sullivan’s invention of Wi-Fi has earned the national science agency just over $500 million in royalty income from the patents.
Page 2: ‘‘Automated mode is available,’’ says the big screen on the silver Tesla electric vehicle being used by Robert Bosch Australia to road test automated driving technology.
Commercial Airbnb operators who use the home sharing platform to rent out their investment properties in NSW should be required to apply for a development application if it has a significant impact in the neighbourhood, says a report to the Baird government.
Page 3: Property looks set to become the ‘‘worst investment’’ over coming decades because of a looming bust in apartment prices and the reality that official interest rates won’t stay low forever. Deloitte Access Economics economist Chris Richardson describes the economy as being trapped in a ‘‘Faustian bargain’’ with low borrowing costs and resurgent commodity prices.
Page 4: Queensland’s Auswide Bank has defied the big four and will start to offer rate tracker mortgages from Monday – loans priced at a fixed margin above the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate.
Page 5: The Turnbull government is pushing to have its two double dissolution industrial relations bills passed by the Senate before year’s end, as it ramps up its campaign to curb excesses across the construction industry.
Page 6: Crown Resorts’ China strategy has been thrown into chaos after 18 of its employees were detained late last week in what is believed to be part of a crackdown on foreign casinos marketing on the mainland.
Page 7: ANZ has set up a loan investigation centre on mainland China and other Asian capitals to cut down on fraudulent and inaccurate home loan applications.
Major companies including Crown Resorts, Spotless Group, Origin Energy and Mortgage Choice face an investor backlash at their annual shareholder meetings this week, after CSL and AGL Energy suffered a ‘‘first strike’’ over executive pay as the AGM season swings into full gear.
Page 8: Andrew Forrest has called on the Australian government to consider legislation similar to the UK Modern Slavery Act to ensure Australian companies are held responsible for exploitation in their supply chains.
Page 11: Australian banks being sued by American hedge funds for allegedly manipulating financial market interest rates will try to knock out the US court case by advocating a legal precedent set by the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Page 13: Oil Search, Woodside Petroleum and Santos are due to report September quarter numbers this week, with revenues expected to be down across the board from a year earlier as the oil and gas sector remains badly out of favour with big sections of the market.
One of the house rules at VGI Partners is ‘‘no PA’’, or ‘‘personal accounts’’, the industry slang for side bets in the market made in a personal rather than professional capacity.
Page 15: The east coast infrastructure boom may end in a ‘‘perfect storm’’ of financial claims after construction companies have taken on too much risk when bidding for multibillion-dollar projects, lawyers have warned.
The Australian Shareholders’ Association has called on Aurizon to adopt a policy of awarding short-term bonuses only when financial targets are hit after the rail group’s board used its ‘‘discretion’’ to withhold bonuses from chief executive Lance Hockridge and his direct reports.
Page 16: The Australian Securities and Investments Commission would consider using a new mandate requiring it to consider competition in its regulation of the financial services industry to raise objections with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to future merger proposals that may increase industry concentration, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft told a parliamentary committee on Friday.
BT Financial Group CEO Brad Cooper wants the life insurance industry to improve the consistency of data to allow for valid comparisons of products, after it was revealed the Westpac Banking Corp-owned wealth manager had declined 37 per cent of claims for total and permanent disability (TPD) over the past three years.
Page 17: Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, is considering options such as scaling back US operations as part of a wider overhaul to lower costs, according to several media reports.
Page 18: One of the unsung heroes of the ASX, the $1.4 billion ARB Corporation, is gearing up for a big expansion in Thailand to keep up with rising demand in Australia and offshore for bull bars, suspension products and canopies for 4WDs and sports utility vehicles.
Rio Tinto is expected to fall further behind the pace needed to meet its full-year iron ore export target, with analysts tipping the miner and its Pilbara rival BHP Billiton are set to report sluggish September-quarter iron ore output figures this week.
Page 20: Gold and lithium may be exiting investors but for BC Iron chief executive Alwyn Vorster ‘‘unfashionable’’ commodities such as bauxite, mineral sands and potash are far more alluring.
One of the world’s biggest bond investors, Manulife Asset Management, sees the risk of Australia losing its triple-A sovereign credit rating as overstated. Tom Goggins, the Boston-based senior portfolio manager for global multi-sector fixed income at the $US334 billion asset manager, also thinks any bout of over-reaction would be met with buying of Australian debt.
Page 21: US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has set out the case for why the Fed may allow the US economy to run hot, deepening a recent bond market rout, as traders bet the dovish central bank would tolerate higher inflation.
The Australian
Page 1: Malcolm Turnbull will launch a political assault on Labor and the Greens for defending a militant union that has pumped almost $2.3 million into the two parties as he moves this week to secure a Senate vote to stamp out a “toxic culture” that hurts the economy.
Page 2: Melbourne developer Golden Age will put a 20 per cent cap on the ratio of overseas buyers — mostly Chinese — in its latest Sydney apartment project in a bid to lessen the risk of buyers not settling.
Page 3: Labor faces another police inquiry into its “privatising Medicare” campaign claims as federal officials refer a new aspect of the affair to the authorities out of concern about a breach of the laws that protect the government health agency.
Page 6: The billion-dollar trend of public hospitals billing health insurers for the cost of treating members — who as taxpayers would otherwise not be charged — is under review.
Page 17: The energy sector could be hit with higher debt costs if a federally driven proposal to scrap a controversial regime for reviewing electricity and gas network revenue decisions goes ahead, the institutional arms of two major banks have warned.
The life insurance industry is on a collision course with Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer after the Financial Services Council refused to commit to making a code of practice covering the scandal-ridden sector enforceable by the corporate watchdog.
Increasingly acquisitive private equity groups and years of underinvestment by companies bode well for investment banks as clients use takeovers to deliver growth in the face of diminishing stimulus from central banks and governments, according to Citi’s senior deal maker Tony Osmond.
Packaging magnate Anthony Pratt has challenged big companies to invest more in growing their businesses rather than simply handing back capital to shareholders as his multi-billion-dollar global empire prepares to spend more than $200 million deploying robots across its network of box factories.
Page 19: US hardware giant Lowe’s seems to have succumbed to the inevitable of striking a deal through arbitration with its former partner Woolworths over the winding up of their failed hardware chain Masters after not appealing a ruling by the Federal Court last month.
The co-operative ethos is embedded in the DNA of the $4 billion grain handler CBH Group, but that doesn’t make it a charity, as chief executive Andy Crane explains.
William Hill will ignore its largest shareholder and continue £6bn ($9.6bn) merger talks with the Canadian owner of the Poker-Stars website.
Page 20: Kerr Neilson has seen it all — it’s one of the reasons why fund managers the world over take note of his views on the state of the market. It’s why many will pay attention when he says there’s a huge change afoot in financial markets.
It makes more sense for a global banking giant such as Morgan Stanley to collaborate with innovative fintech start-ups than to try to be innovative itself, according to the bank’s chief analytics and data officer, Jeffrey McMillan.
Page 21: The head of construction and development heavyweight Lend Lease has called for greater clarity in the handling of major urban development projects in NSW after a series of controversial tenders.
Page 22: The fortunes of US banks improved in the third quarter thanks to uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies. That fuelled gains on Wall Street, even as super-low interest rates continued to be a dampener on retail and commercial banking businesses.
Page 23: Cricket Australia is planning to lobby the Turnbull government to gain more flexibility over short-form international matches on the anti-siphoning list as it prepares to open talks on a new rights deal.
Page 25: OMD Australia has turned to an internal candidate for its new chief executive, appointing Aimee Buchanan to complete a new-look senior management team.
The West Australian
Page 10: WA is the country’s “most unequal” State and faces a widening gap between average weekly earnings and the incomes of its poor. The WA Council of Social Service’s annual cost of living report, to be released today, shows rising unemployment and increasing casualisation of the State’s workforce are putting pressure on low-income households.
Page 44: The financial bleeding at troubled Collie coal miner Griffin continued in the three months to July but there are signs the Indian-owned group’s fortunes could improve.
Apartment hotel giant Quest is positioning itself for WA’s next upturn through an aggressive expansion while economic conditions are soft. The company’s latest project, Quest Mounts Bay Road, opens officially tomorrow. The new building is one of several in the pipeline which will bring to 790 the number of rooms Quest will add to the market over the next two years.
Three Harvey dairy farmers who cannot sell their milk could start dumping their product tomorrow, in a move which risks fines from environmental authorities.
