PRESS DIGEST-Australian Business News - April 10
07:57, Monday, 10 April 2006
(Compiled for Reuters by Media Monitors)
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW (www.afr.com)
Australia's largest privately owned pubs business, The Laundy
Group, is reportedly considering offers for its 35-hotel chain,
worth an estimated A$500 million. 'The family is keen to
entertain the thought of selling,' said one industry source.
Rumoured potential buyers, Woolworthsand Coles Myer , yesterday downplayed the possibility of an acquisition
to add to their billion-dollar pubs portfolios. Pubs have been
fetching record prices in recent years, following the
introduction of poker machines in all states except Western
Australia. Page 12.
--
Retailer, Harris Scarfe, is planning to offer a A$30
million-plus stake in its business to private equity firms later
this year after downsizing its larger city-stores. Chief
executive, Robert Atkins, said Harris Scarfe no longer considered
itself a discount department store competing against BigW and
Kmart, and had repositioned itself as a specialty apparel and
homewares retailer. Stock-turn ratios had improved to more than
four times, double that of the business when it was bought out of
receivership by a consortium headed by Mr Atkins in 2001. Page
12.
--
A Macquarie Infrastructure Group-led consortium may
be thwarted in its A$11.3 billion bid for French toll-road,
Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhone (APRR), by hedge funds that have
taken a blocking stake ahead of the offer's expiry on Thursday.
United States hedge fund group, Elliot Management Corp, lifted
its stake in the tollway to 7.01 per cent on Friday, potentially
denying MIG access to vital tax benefits should the bid fail to
achieve 95 per cent. Page 12.
--
News Corpmay implement a one-year 'poison pill'
shareholder rights plan should a party acquire a five per cent
stake or make an offer for 30 per cent or more of the media
group, under an agreement with institutional investors last week.
Shareholders are expected to vote on an extension of the poison
pill to November 2008 at the annual general meeting in October.
News Corp used the poison pill in 2004 when Liberty Group
increased its stake from nine to 17 per cent. The plan afforded
shareholders a right for each News Corp share they own to acquire
more shares at half price. Page 13.
--
THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)
A consortium led by Macquarie Bankand Swedish
private equity group, EQT Partners, has bought the Select Service
Partner (SSP) catering unit of Britain's Compass Group
for A$4.4 billion in a deal that will make Macquarie one of the
biggest truck-stop café operators in Britain. EQT will take over
SSP's airport and railway catering division, with Macquarie to
assume control of 44 motorway services operations across the
country. These have a 42 per cent market share in Britain's
highly concentrated trunk-road network. Page 25.
--
Patrick Corporationwill begin a Federal Court
challenge this week to overturn a decision by the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approving undertakings
made by hostile bidder, Toll Holdings. Toll has
promised the ACCC it will sell half of the Pacific National rail
joint venture it owns with Patrick if it succeeds in its A$5.3
billion takeover of the stevedore. However, Patrick has
challenged Toll's right to sell off the business and give up key
assets, arguing this would be in breach of directors' duties
under the Corporations Act. Page 25.
--
Publishing & Broadcasting Ltdand Asian joint
venture partner, Melco International Development, are expected to
clarify details of their plans for the A$1.4 billion City of
Dreams casino project in Macau at the ground-breaking ceremony
tonight. PBL indicated recently that a design for an underwater
casino had been shelved, while Melco informed the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange last week the casino would feature 'world class gaming
facilities in an underwater environment.' The PBL-Melco group
has already delayed plans to open its first casino, in the A$300
million Crown Macau, until next year. Page 25.
--
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has dismissed calls
from six companies at last week's Business Roundtable on Climate
Change to lobby the Federal Government for a carbon tax. Six
chief executives, including Westpac Banking Corp's David Morgan,
Origin Energy's Grant King and Insurance Australia Group's
Michael Hawker - all BCA members - called for the introduction of
a carbon-pricing policy invoking financial penalties for
greenhouse gas emissions. However, BCA said it was already
considering climate change in its infrastructure action plan
released last year. Page 27.
--
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (www.smh.com.au)
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
chairman, Jeffrey Lucy, says the civil case against the world's
biggest bank, Citigroup, is not designed to regulate
proprietary trading but to establish banks' legal obligations to
their clients. 'Banks have an obligation to manage their
conflicts of interest to a client they are advising,' Mr Lucy
said yesterday. ASIC began Federal Court action against
Citigroup last month, alleging the bank breached its fiduciary
duty to Toll Holdings - which it was advising on a planned
takeover of Patrick Corp - when it traded Patrick shares in
August last year, just before Toll made its bid. Page 17.
--
British online betting exchange, Betfair, which is a partner
in Australia with Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd, will
return more than A$717 million to shareholders after the unlisted
company closed a deal with Softbank, the Japanese Internet group.
Softbank has bought a 23 per cent stake in Betfair for £355
million, of which £45 million will be invested directly in the
company via new shares. Launched six years ago, Betfair allows
customers to bet against each other instead of accepting fixed
odds from a traditional bookmaker. Page 18.
--
The Australian stockmarket is due for a correction after
gaining more than 10 per cent this year, but this will take place
later rather than sooner, economists say. The benchmark
S&P/ASX200 Index closed at 5232.9 points last week and the All
Ordinaries at 5186.6, with surveys on business and consumer
sentiment indicating continued confidence in the national
economy. 'Fair value for the ASX200 is around 5600 so the market
still has a fair way to go before it can be considered
expansive,' said AMP Capital Investors chief economist, Shane
Oliver. Page 19.
--
Troubled West Australian gold producer, Croesus Mining, believes it can stave off administration with the help
of its financier, Macquarie Bank, after appointing former
Consolidated Minerals operations director, Allan Quadrio, as new
managing director last Friday. Croesus suspended trading on the
Australian Stock Exchange on March 16, when high production costs
and inflated hedging commitments forced it to institute a
business review. Macquarie agreed in principle to help Croesus
restructure its hedging commitments but has not yet signed a
final deal. Page 19.
--
THE AGE (www.theage.com.au)
The Federal Government's Future Fund will only defer
superannuation liabilities rather than cure them, says AXA Asia
Pacific Holdings chief executive and member of Treasury's
Financial Sector Advisory Council, Les Owen. 'The key question
is: what are they going to invest the Future Fund in? Because if
they don't invest it in something that's going to lead to faster
economic growth than the alternative, then...it won't achieve
anything,' said Mr Owen. The Future Fund was established in 2004
to help fund public servants' superannuation. Page B1.
--
Listed pine group, Willmott Forests, has signed an
agreement with Hancock Victorian Plantations to finance new pine
plantations on Hancock land. With the arrangement, Willmott will
have access to high-quality timber country in Victoria at a time
when there is disquiet in regional areas at farm land being sold
for plantations and pushing up prices. Willmott, a pine
plantation manager and processor based in Melbourne, has more
than 24,000 hectares of pine plantations, mainly in southeast New
South Wales. Page B2.
--
The board of cancer drug developer, Psiron, is being
pressured to resign after a fundraising plan was abandoned amid
allegations of conflict of interest involving two directors.
Chairman, Stephen Jones, and non-executive director, Wolf
Hanisch, have been accused by the company's stockbroker, DFS
Equities, of acting improperly in relation to a proposal by the
Australian Technology Innovation Fund to invest up to A$5
million. Both are directors and part owners of the fund. Psiron
has rejected the allegations and threatened to sue DFS Equities over the claim. Page B2.
--
Looking for more information from local sources? Factiva.com
has 112 Australian sources including the Australian Financial
Review.
((Reuters Sydney Newsroom, 61-2 9373 1800,
[email protected]))
(c) Reuters Limited 2006
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