ntnews.com.aul l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l BUSINESS
Packer’s casino buy on track
CBA $7bn profit likely
Perron in $690m shopping bill
SYDNEY: A report clearing Sydney casino The Star of
any wrongdoing over its investigation of sex
harassment claims is unlikely to stop James Packer’s
push to buy its owner, Echo Entertainment. The Star
yesterday was found to have investigated sexual
harassment claims against its former general
manager Sid Vaikunta ‘‘properly and thoroughly’’. Mr
Packer’s Crown casino recently bought 10 per cent of
Echo, and was keen to take a larger stake.
SYDNEY: Commonwealth Bank of
Australia (CBA) is on track to be the
first of the big four to post a $7 billion full-year profit.
Australia’s largest lender made a $1.7 billion net
profit in the three months to March 31, taking net
profit for the first nine months of the financial year
to $5.32 billion. CBA’s cash profit, which the industry
sees as a clearer reflection of performance, could
also top $7 billion in full-year results in August.
SYDNEY: Centro Retail Australia has sold halfownership stakes in three of its shopping centres to
billionaire Stan Perron for $690.4 million. Centro had
been offering 50 per cent stakes in Galleria in Perth,
The Glen in Melbourne and Colonnades in Adelaide
since April. The successful bidder was Perth property
group Perron, which is controlled by Mr Perron.
Centro Retail chief executive Steven Sewell said the
deal was a ‘‘redefining moment’’ for the company.
SYDNEY: BHP Billiton is turning its back on a silver, lead
and zinc joint venture project
in north Queensland amid
doubts about its potential.
BHP’s minerals division had
partnered with Breakaway
Resources for the Altia project, 70km southeast of
Cloncurry.
$2BN CLASS ACTION
NEW YORK: US fund manager
Saratoga Capital Management has filed a class action
lawsuit against JPMorgan
Chase after the bank lost
more than $2 billion in derivatives trading.
The suit accuses the bank, as
well as Jamie Dimon, chief
executive and chairman, and
Douglas Braunstein, chief
financial officer, of fraudulently hiding massive derivatives bets that resulted in
the huge loss.
IAG SELL-OFF MOVE
Greece euro exit
covered by banks
By DREW CRATCHLEY
SYDNEY: Greece’s exit from
the euro zone would not have
the same impact on the world
as the events that led to the
global financial crisis (GFC),
the head of Commonwealth
Bank of Australia says.
CBA chief executive Ian
Narev yesterday said it was
possible that Greece could default on its loans and the
terms of its
bailout, which
may result in its
exit from the
euro. But that
had been a possiIan Narev
bility for some
time, and financial institutions had had time to prepare,
Mr Narev said.
‘‘An organisation like ours,
and there would be many others around the world, plans
for that scenario and knows
what would happen,’’ he said.
‘‘So I think there’s a degree
of forward planning for that
possibility that would soften
any impact.
‘‘But the impact would still
be material, I think.’’
Mr Narev was responding
to a question about whether a
Greek debt default would
have similar ramifications to
the collapse of global finan-
cial services provider Lehman Brothers in 2008, a precursor to the GFC.
Experts have said a Greek
exit from the euro would cripple the country and also result in financial chaos for other countries such as Spain
and Portugal, and the euro
zone in general.
The CBA boss said he expected Europe’s debt crisis to
carry on for ‘‘a while’’, but
was reluctant to be more
specific. ‘‘In our view, it’s not
weeks and it’s not months,’’
Mr Narev said.
He said CBA was comfortable with its exposure to
Europe’s woes through its relationships with other financial institutions.
The economy in Australia,
where it does the bulk of its
business, remained strong,
Mr Narev said.
SYDNEY: Insurance Australia
Group (IAG) is considering a
potential sale of its lossmaking businesses in the UK.
IAG has launched a review
of its Equity Red Star, the
UK’s fifth largest motor
insurer, and commercial insurance broker Barnett &
Barnett, paving the way for
a possible sale.
Aussies
drowning
in debt
LEIGHTON REVIEW
By KARINA BARRYMORE
SYDNEY: Construction giant
Leighton Holdings has appointed an external consultant to review its disclosure
procedures after breaching
laws earlier this year.
The Australian Securities
and Investments Commission fined Leighton $300,000
in March for contravening
continuous disclosure laws
over its announcement of
an earnings downgrade in
April last year.
BIGGEST IN WORLD
MELBOURNE:
Australia
should be the world’s biggest
exporter of liquefied natural
gas by the end of the decade, Exxon Mobil’s Asia Pacific, Africa and Power head
Emma Cochrane told a business lunch yesterday.
CORN PACKAGING
MELBOURNE: Coles has
struck a deal to sell meat in
packaging made from corn in
a coup for a Melbourne plastics manufacturer.
Plantic’s biodegradable Eco
Plastic, made largely from
corn starch, will be used by
the supermarket giant to
package its meat.
According to the Veda survey, more than one in five people are already struggling to meet debt repayments
MELBOURNE: About 750,000
Australians are in danger of
falling into a ‘‘debt spiral’’ if
the economy takes a turn for
the worse.
According to a survey by
data collection agency Veda,
more than one in five people
are already ‘‘struggling’’ to
meet debt repayments.
And a quarter of those say
they have no option but to
borrow even more to survive.
Veda spokesman Matthew
Strassberg said about 40 per
cent of Australians were suffering some form of ‘‘financial stress’’.
About 20 per cent said they
were coping but had to use a
large portion of their income
to meet their commitments.
Another 20 per cent said
they were having difficulty
meeting repayments but had
not yet defaulted, while about
1 per cent said they did not
know if they could make
their next repayment.
Consumer Action Law
Centre director Gerard
Brody said the survey results
were ‘‘frightening’’. ‘‘Applying for more and more debt is
not the answer,’’ he said.
Reject offer, says Coalworks
Kipp disputes BHP woes claim
SYDNEY: Coalworks again
has called for shareholders to
reject a $142 million takeover
offer, as well as a separate bid
to dump its chairman and
chief executive.
In notes accompanying a
presentation to investors yesterday, Coalworks said the
$1-a-share takeover offer
from Whitehaven Coal materially undervalues the com-
SYDNEY: Mining products
company Boart Longyear
chief executive Craig Kipp
has disputed claims by BHP
Billiton that commodity
price falls and global economic uncertainty are causing
miners to scale back.
Kipp said Boart Longyear,
the world’s biggest drilling
company, had not noticed
any changes in the number of
www.ntnews.com.au
pany and does not reflect the
company’s growth prospects.
‘‘The board also believes
the offer is opportunistic and
has been timed to coincide
with a separate attempt to destabilise Coalworks by calling a general meeting to remove Coalworks independent chairman and managing
director/chief executive officer,’’ the notes said.
Macquarie Bank has called
a general meeting of Coalworks shareholders on June
15 so they can vote on its
push to remove chairman
Wayne Mitchell and managing director Andrew Firek.
The investment bank
wants to replace the pair
with its own nominees, Anthony Ferguson and Johann
Jooste-Jacobs.
mining projects
around
the
world.
‘‘We
haven’t heard
from a lot of majors outside of
Craig Kipp
Australia that
there’s a change in budget,
that there’s massive realignment or expectations going
on,’’ he told a company investor day yesterday. His
comments came a day after
BHP chairman Jacques Nasser said the resources giant
had canned plans to spend
$80 billion on projects amid
falling commodity prices and
worries about Europe.
The only mining companies doing it tough were
second tier juniors who were
having trouble getting
financing, Mr Kipp said.
Friday, May 18, 2012. NT NEWS.
45
PUB:
BHP PULLS OUT
R:
LOWSNENT
45
GE:
18TE:
K
MDA
Y
C