Today's Business Headlines

ASX beefs up scrutiny of floats
The Australian Securities Exchange will intensify its surveillance of company floats as private businesses rush to list on the stock exchange to take advantage of the economic recovery and the renewed appetite of investors. The Fin Review

China digs in on energy, mine investment growth
Senior Chinese officials have sent a clear signal the expect Beijing's investment in Australian resources companies to keep growing, as the People's Republic seeks to bolster its energy and raw materials supplies. The West

Another day, another pay revolt
Shareholders have launched a stinging protest vote against excessive pay packages just weeks into this year's annual general meeting season, angered by easy bonuses and weak incentive programs. Sydney Morning Herald

ING calls in shareholders to save its skin
The move by ING Industrial Fund to raise $700 million without the financial backing of its major shareholder, external manager and responsible entity, heralds the last of the big listed property trust recaps, which have raised more than $20 billion in the past 18 months. The Age

Kelly on rate attack
Westpac chief Gail Kelly yesterday stepped up the push by banks for rate rises outside of Reserve Bank moves, warning that the industry may be forced to ration loans in the face of rising funding costs. Herald Sun

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 3: Commerce Minister Troy Buswell plans to introduce late-night and Sunday trading for certain inner-city suburbs during the summer parliamentary recess, in a move that would prevent the regulations from being overturned until at leats two months after they have been in place.

Page 4: WA's biggest health fund is under pressure to lift premiums after a surge in elderly people claiming benefits and a heavy loss on investments for the second year running.

Page 9: A review of WA's ambulance service after the controversial deaths of patients in their care has recommended more funding and paramedics but stopped short of wanting an end to the outsourcing of the service to the St John Ambulance Association.

Page 15: Salesmen from a Melbourne company that had been blacklisted pretended to be from a different firm when to get WA public officials to buy photocopy toner, the Corruption and Crime Commission was told yesterday.

Page 19: Almost a third of WA businesses plan to put on staff to the lead-up to Christmas but their efforts could be tempered if inflation figures out today force the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates quickly, a survey has found.

Business: Senior Chinese officials have sent a clear signal the expect Beijing's investment in Australian resources companies to keep growing, as the People's Republic seeks to bolster its energy and raw materials supplies.

Port Bouvard last night placed its shares in a trading halt as its directors remain locked in negotiations with financier St George Bank ahead of Saturday's deadline to roll over nearly $70 million in debt.

Resources engineering contractor WorleyParsons has been among the first to ring the alarm bells on the impact of the strong dollar on its earnings outlook, and in the process has sent its share price tumbling.

The Oakajee port, Northbridge Link development and elements of two major Perth hospital projects will be financed in part by billions of dollars in bank debt bought by the Rudd government.

Shareholders angered by easy bonuses and weak incentive programs have launched another stinging protest vote against excessive pay packages, just weeks into this year's annual meeting season.

Drilling contractor Ausdrill could be on a collision course with shareholders after flagging yesterday that it wanted to double the pay pool for non-executive directors.

Verve Energy should be granted a guaranteed supply deal with Synergy for the life of its current power plants to protect the state's electricity investments, according to the utility's chairman, David Eiszele.

More pain is on the way for Australia's exporters, with forecasts predicting resources stocks could have their earnings more than halved in the year ahead if the dollar continues its upward trajectory.

Cashed-up diversified miner Metals X is on the hunt for nickel and gold projects after amassing a war chest of almost $100 million.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: The federal government is planning to use its financial power to exert control over housing development, land release, building codes and urban transport infrastructure to ensure that cities meet the challenges of population growth and climate change.

The beverage industry has launched a last-minute lobbying campaign to stop federal government plans for a drink container recycling scheme, claiming the proposed levy would cost it nearly $500 million a year.

The Australian Securities Exchange will intensify its surveillance of company floats as private businesses rush to list on the stock exchange to take advantage of the economic recovery and the renewed appetite of investors.

Page 3: The coalition has won support from the Greens and independent senator Nick Xenophon in its bid to demand the government wind back it economic stimulus measures.

Page 5: The federal government predicts insurance premiums will rise and property worth up to $150 billion in vulnerable coastal areas will be at risk if no action is taken to reduce climate change.

Page 7: Environment Minister Peter Garrett has defended the Thai operator of an offshore well responsible for Australia's third-worst oil spill, as the company admitted yesterday it was still unable to plug the leak and would try again later this week.

Page 9: Business is resisting plans by the Rudd government to tighten eligibility for research and development subsidies, claiming it could reduce innovation in mining, information technology, engineering and manufacturing.

Page 11: Unions are mounting a last-ditch push to win changes to the Rudd government's proposed national occupational health and safety laws to allow injured workers to initiate a prosecution.

Page 32: Rising construction, building and infrastructure investment in Australia is expected to fill the order books of small-cap engineering and construction services companies as the economic recovery unfolds.

Page 49: Institutional investor demand in Myer's initial public offering will determine whether the retailer's owner, private equity firm TPG, can retain 20 per cent of its holding as hoped, with many local and overseas institutions saying they do not want it to remain a shareholder.

Page 51: Engineering and construction group WorleyParsons has warned that its earnings this financial year could take a $35 million to $40 million hit as a result of unfavourable exchange-rate movements.

Diversified industrial group Campbell Brothers has won over the board of non-destructive testing firm PearlStreet with a substantially increased cash takeover offer.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Kevin Rudd wants to seize greater control of urban planning by denying infrastructure funding to states and councils that won't agree to improve public transport and ban haphazard housing development.

The Rudd government appears prepared to accept a coalition demand to exclude agriculture from its emissions trading scheme but impose regulations to ensure the farm sector reduces greenhouse gases produced from livestock and crops.

A consortium of charities is vying with former American junk bond king Michael Milken to buy Australia's biggest childcare chain, the failed ABC Learning group.

Page 2: Drought has dragged the water-guzzling Cubbie Station to the brink of collapse, with administrators poised to take over the nation's biggest cotton producer.

Woolworths has sacked three executives in its fresh-food buying department after an investigation uncovered irregularities in dealings with fruit and vegetable wholesalers at Sydney's Flemington markets.

A sharp increase in cyber attacks including internet probes by "hostile foreign intelligence services" marked the busiest year since 2005 for the country's peak security service, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

Page 4: Storm Financial handled its clients' margin loans badly, failing to protect them from sliding into dangerous margin call territory until months after the sharemarket plunged, a court has been told.

The federal government has been urged to consider a buyback of certificates issued under the Renewable Energy Target to halt a plunge in prices that threatens billion of dollars of investment in the renewable energy sector.

Page 5: The Liberal Party's federal director, Brian Loughnane, has urged Malcolm Turnbull and his team to engage Kevin Rudd in a policy debate by addressing "growing" public concern that the Prime Minister is a spin merchant focused on short-term politics.

A $623 million Rudd government scheme designed to ease the national housing shortage by subsidising rents is having least effect in Sydney, where the crisis is deepest.

Page 6: Housing industry figures last night offered cautious support for Kevin Rudd's proposal to take control of the long-term infrastructure planning of Australia's cities, saying such a move was overdue.

Page 7: Tourism operators struggling to emerge from the global financial crisis now fear being hit hard by the high Australian dollar and one in six expects to make further job cuts.

Business: Transurban narrowly avoided having its remuneration report rejected for a second year running yesterday as the toll road operator became the latest company to be drawn into a powerful investor lobby against excessive executive salaries.

Macquarie Group is chipping away at its $4 billion war chest with the acquisition of a Canadian retail advisory firm that will help it compete more evenly with the big Wall Street investment banks.

Commonwealth Bank has settled a potentially explosive court action brought by two former high-profile traders, days before the NSW Supreme Court was to begin hearing the case.

Prominent company chairman and director Graham Bradley has become the leading voice among chief executives of more than 100 of the nation's leading companies as the new president of the Business Council of Australia.

Global investment banks are facing more wrath from Chinese investors as more than two dozen millionaires from Greater China sue 11 foreign banks including ABN AMRO, HSBC and Citi.

ING Industrial Fund (IIF) is seeking to raise $700 million, but its largest shareholder, Amsterdam-based ING Real Estate, will not to take up its entitlement.

Further signs have emerged of an improving global banking environment, with Fitch Ratings revealing yesterday that the number of credit downgrades had fallen in the September quarter.

Engineering firm WorleyParsons says a strong Australian dollar is hurting its foreign currency earnings and could shave $35 million to $40m from its expected 2009-10 net profit.

Mongolia's prime minister, Bayar Sanjaa, has announced his intention to resign, raising questions about the future of the coalition government leading the resource-rich country, which has become one of the world's most promising mining destinations.

Despite the global financial meltdown, the microfinance industry has continued to boom in India because of an influx of private equity and bank funding, according to a study.

Four months after exiting bankruptcy, Chrysler is about to unveil a product road map that relies heavily on vehicles from Italian partner Fiat while abandoning many of the US carmaker's own models.

Simon Crean has been coming to Japan for 38 years, first as a union official and later as a minister in three Labor administrations. But this week he's dealing with a different kind of Japanese government.

BP posted a 34 per cent fall in third quarter net profit as lower average crude oil, natural gas and refined product prices again offset higher production.

The Australian sharemarket closed in the red yesterday following a weaker materials sector and profit-taking.