Market run triggers floats rush
The sharemarket’s18-month run has unlocked the initial public offer market, with as many as 15 companies worth up to $10 billion seeking to list before Christmas. And the rush looks set to carry into the new year with the private equity owners of Link, Healthscope and Spotless Group considering floats.
Say goodbye to cheap iPhone deals
Mobile service users will be forced to pay more for high-end smartphones as telcos move to slash handset subsidies to boost earnings, according to Optus chief executive Kevin Russell.
GM snub to federal industry minister
A visiting global executive from General Motors snubbed a federal government request for a meeting this week, further souring relations and increasing expectations Holden will leave Australia.
China to loosen foreign investment restrictions
China has pledged to remove foreign investment limits for aged care, logistics, accounting and architecture as part of sweeping reforms unveiled by the Communist Party on Friday night.
Asian investors push up CBD land prices
Asian property investors and sovereign vehicles are paying a premium for land to develop apartment towers and are prepared to take smaller profit margins than their Australian competitors.
David Jones says Zahra not forced out
David Jones chairman Peter Mason has managed to reassure the retailer’s second-biggest shareholder that his board is not forcing Paul Zahra out of a job amid concerns about why he wants to leave.
Rio Tinto twist in Rinehart trustee saga
The partner of Gina Rinehart’s eldest daughter Bianca has thrown his hat in the ring to be appointed as new trustee of the $5 billion family trust, which is likely to see Rio Tinto pulled into the bitter family dispute.
QIC fields $7bn offer for tollroads
State-owned fund manager QIC Limited has received several unsolicited bids for its Brisbane toll road portfolio Queensland Motorways, including an informal offer as high as $7 billion.
Real estate groups call for nationwide strata law reform
Laws around apartment living need to keep up with the rising number of units, say legal and real estate groups, as strata laws around the country are decades out of date.
Drugs delays irk industry
Pharmaceutical companies have taken the rare step of speaking out against the government body that approves drugs for public subsidy, arguing there has been a fundamental breakdown in its processes.
Money unmaketh the man: the downfall of Hartman and Curtis
Twentysomethings John Hartman and Oliver Curtis were living the dream. Insider trading gave the inseparable friends extreme wealth, but their greed would bring them down.
Why the Sydney Opera House is a true bastion of Ocker elitism
Mark Latham | Sydney’s Opera House reaffirms our faith in big institutions with elitist principles. After all, deep down everyone loves Wagner and outrageously expensive restaurants.
Deflation fears haunt world’s biggest economies
Dropping prices and record low cash rates raise concerns deflation is a real threat to the world’s biggest economies.
Ivor Ries joins Morgans in Melbourne
High-profile research analyst Ivor Ries has joined broking and advisory group Morgans in Melbourne as a senior research analyst.
Why divorce is about to get more expensive
Property settlements by wealthy couples getting divorced could be hit by much bigger tax bills under changes proposed by the Australian Taxation Office.
FBT reform is done for but the irony goes on
Labor’s doomed proposal to change the way fringe benefits tax is applied to vehicles may have inadvertently provided car and novated lease companies with priceless publicity.
How Lance Armstrong took us all for a ride
A new book on cycling’s biggest scandal argues that through our own willingness to worship celebrity we have ushered in a golden age of fraud.
From big rigs to a prize garden centre
Estelle Cornell knew nothing about the business but has succeeded in building Allora Gardens Nursery, Darwin’s biggest garden centre.
‘This is your chance’, ATO tells Swiss bank account holders
Rich Australians owing hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue hidden in Swiss bank accounts could be offered amnesty if they come forward and confess old sins.
AFR mag named best newspaper insert
The title of best newspaper magazine in Australia has gone to The Australian Financial Review Magazine, at the Australian Magazine Awards.
Want to read minds? Read good books
Fifty Shades of Grey may be a fun read, but it’s not going to help you probe the minds of others the way War and Peace might.
Japan raises glass to beaujolais
Le beaujolais nouveau est arrive! Or at least, the inaugural shipment of this year’s batch touched down in Japan, the biggest buyer of the fruity red wine.
South Korean soap operas hook global audiences
South Korea’s TV drama exports have grown from $US8 million in 2001 to $US155 million in 2011 – the most recent official figure available.
Five Aussies join top ranks at Goldman Sachs
There are five Australians among the 280 executives whom Goldman Sachs has promoted to managing director, the title one step away from becoming a partner.
National
AEC petitions for new WA poll
Western Australian voters are all but certain to head back to the polls after the Australian Electoral Commission filed a petition on Friday asking that the results be declared void.
- Australia, Sri Lanka to boost cooperation on asylum seekers
- Debt battle goes down to the wire
- Government aims to woo China with FTA package
- Land clearance affects WA rainfall, report claims
- Coalition eyes Rudd’s seat
- Minister extends gag to Indonesian boats buyback scheme
- Public servants not gutsy enough with politicians, says ex premier Greiner
- Business worried by carbon tax repeal
- IR rejig’s scope worries employer groups
How AusAID pays for Labor official’s salary
Exclusive | ALP assistant national secretary Nick Martin has a large portion of his salary paid from a $1 million per year federal government AusAID grant.
Opinion
BRICs and MINTs may struggle to match China’s growth
If China’s leaders can deliver the reforms they’ve been discussing, other BRIC and MINT economies will have an even more daunting standard against which to measure their performance.
Rudd: the PM who flamed out
Editorial | It is hard to recall now the optimism for Labor that Kevin Rudd brought with him at his election as Prime Minister in November 2007. Political time and tide were running in his favour. Yet in little more than two and half years he was gone.
Farewell to Labor’s great wrecker: Kevin Rudd
Mark Latham | As Paul Keating might say, Bill Shorten has been hit by a rainbow in the backside. Whereas every Labor leader since 2001 has struggled with the frantically self-promotional, destabilising presence of Kevin Rudd, Shorten is the one lucky enough to see him out of Parliament.
World
China to ease ‘one-child’ policy
China will relax its “one child” policy, force state-owned enterprises to pay more dividends and give farmers greater property rights under a suite of reform proposals announced late Friday.
- JPMorgan Chase offers $4.5bn in mortgage deal
- Hacker tied to Anonymous gets 10 years in US prison
- Germany casts cloud over Europe's bank revamp
- Italy budget plan risks breaking EU rules
- Forbes up for sale after ‘serious’ overtures made
- US Postal Service narrows loss in latest fiscal year
- GE plans to sell 20pc of retail finance unit
- Australia, Sri Lanka to boost cooperation on asylum seekers
- Japan's new CO2 goal dismays climate conference
Big banks exposed in Royal Mail float debacle
We’re likely to get some insight into pitching practices of the big investment banks when they face the British Parliament next week over the Royal Mail IPO fiasco.
Business
Saputo raises Warrnambool bid to $9
Updated | Canadian dairy giant Saputo has lifted its bid for Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory for a third time, offering shareholders $504 million and dropping key conditions as it tries to break apart a dramatic three way battle for the nation’s fourth largest dairy processor.
- QIC fields $7bn offer for tollroads
- Charter Hall prepares industrial property float
- David Jones says Zahra not forced out
- The mammoth listed fund battle
- AIM improvement helps Western Areas nail FinnAust listing
- Freelancer soars to $2.50 on ASX debut
- Rio’s Turquoise Hill plan could tighten grip on Mongolia mine
- Lend Lease eyeing new projects in Asia
- CBRE increases outsourcing push with $516m UK buy
Transurban boss overtakes competitors for infrastructure
Scott Charlton, the Texan who runs toll road group Transurban, has no doubt he is in the right place at the right time.
Technology
Twitter dominates action in busy US options market
The first day of trading options in Twitter was an active one, with more than 50,000 contracts trading in less than two hours on Friday, a week after the social media name debuted in the equity market.
- Say goodbye to cheap iPhone deals
- Yahoo!7 CEO Stuart Sayers quits for Amazon role
- Zulily IPO zooms 84 per cent in opening trading
- Freelancer soars to $2.50 on ASX debut
- Could Australia’s tech stock frenzy ignite the next Silicon Valley?
- Spy scandal weighs on US tech firms in China
- Snapchat rejects Facebook’s billions, gambles on better offer
- NBN joint parliamentary committee scrapped
Samsung grows smartphone lead but the ‘winner’ is Microsoft
Asia-Pacific has led growth in mobile phone and smartphone sales in the third quarter, with the smartphone segment notching up a 77.3 per cent increase – but the winner of this quarter is Microsoft.
Markets
Market run triggers floats rush
The sharemarket’s18-month run has unlocked the initial public offer market, with as many as 15 companies worth up to $10 billion seeking to list before Christmas. And the rush looks set to carry into the new year with the private equity owners of Link, Healthscope and Spotless Group considering floats.
- Dow Jones, S&P; 500 finish week at record highs
- Dollar climbs to 2-month high v yen, $A advances
- European shares rise, Vivendi lifts media stocks
- US Justice Dept says looking into metals warehousing
- Deflation fears haunt world’s biggest economies
- ASX closes the week in the black
- ANZ’s Smith leads in bank CEO pay
- China eyes reform of capital controls
- What emerging markets have to offer
Shares, $A can count on Yellen, alluding to further gains
Shares and the Australian dollar can count on ongoing support from the United States Federal Reserve after incoming Fed chairman Janet Yellen hinted that there was a strong case for quantitative easing to continue in 2014.
Personal finance
From big rigs to a prize garden centre
Estelle Cornell knew nothing about the business but has succeeded in building Allora Gardens Nursery, Darwin’s biggest garden centre.
- How to make a smart bid at a tough auction
- FBT reform is done for but the irony goes on
- Thriving market for new and used apps and websites
- Super sector’s size should benefit the little guy: Himbury
- QE helps governments, hurts savers: McKinsey
- Yellen says US economy, labour market need to improve
- First-mover GPT Group bolsters adviser stocks
- Packer leapfrogs Lowy on Rich list
- Consumer confidence buoyed by property market
Investing in hybrids: buyer beware
Hybrid securities may seem like attractive offers, but you may be better off investing in a mixture of bank deposits and bank shares, where the various risks are more evident, and the specific blend of risk and return can be more finely tuned to your preferences.
Lifestyle
A passion for Goethe, museums and apple wine
Literary giant Goethe looms over Frankfurt, an ancient city with an enviable arts legacy.
Interactivity hits the arts festival circuit
Perth Festival director Jonathan Holloway is on a mission to make the arts more participatory.
Wine storage out of sight but not out of mind
I love having a place off site to store numerous tasting samples and special wines that deserve not to be too close to hand.
A day with San Sebastian chef Elena Arzak
Elena Arzak was an unexpected recruit to the family restaurant in San Sebastian and her father, Juan Mari, is thrilled.
Latest TV
Hockey rejection would scythe Graincorp price
Graincorp has talked up strong volumes despite a net profit slide, and Tony Boyd says the grains handler badly needs Treasurer Joe Hockey to allow the takeover by Archer Daniels Midland.
Costco takes on all retailers
Wholesale retail giant Costco isn't just targeting Woolworths and Coles. Costco Australia MD Patrick Noone says as long as it's not a firearm or a live animal, Costco is open to selling it.
Review: Google Nexus 5 takes on everyone
Google throws down the smartphone gauntlet to Apple and other manufacturers using its Android system, with its fast, sleek new Nexus 5. Associate editor Ky Chow compares Google's latest to the big dog in the Android yard, Samsung's popular Galaxy S4.
Consumer data and overseas growth a focus this week
Consumer confidence will give Christmas hints to investors, while Japanese and European economic data will be closely watched.
