|
|
|
| Contact Us | Links | Classified | Home |
| Business
News Business Roundups Australia Canada Europe United States Careers Classified Feature Article Information Technology New Technology Education News World Facts Book Reviews Archives/Research Tell your friends about this page |
|
Business Roundup: Australia March 2002
Ansett's final call The on-again off-again negotiations to keep Ansett in the sky came to an abrupt halt this month. After six months of negotiation, investigation and speculation, the billionaire partners of the Tesna bidding group (Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox) said they were no longer interested in bailing out the failed airline. Blaming futile negotiations over Ansett's domestic airport leases across the country, as well as federal government meddling, Fox and Solomon left the negotiating table and are not likely to renew their interest in the 66-year-old business. The walkout leaves 19,000 former Ansett staff without jobs or the guarantee of severance packages. It also leaves the domestic business market open to Qantas and, in part, discount airline Virgin Blue. The government said it would monitor Qantas—which now has over 80 percent of the market—to ensure that it did not abuse its position. No other groups or companies have come forward to pick over the scraps of what was once Australia's second-largest carrier. The latest Australian "must-read" is the in-depth accounting testimony on the HIH Royal Commission's web site. The web site, which was set up to make public the hearings into last year's spectacular crash of HIH Insurance, is averaging 8,000 page views a day and has had over 2.5 million hits so far. Surprisingly, 21 percent of the 31,000 people who have logged on to read the reams of evidence are from the United States. Dubbed "Australia's Enron", the web site offers insomniacs pages of testimony on accounting treatments. Buried in the evidence are some nuggets however, such as the revelation that in 1998 the company's re-insurance manager warned its broker that they were under-reserved by US$45 million. Flight Centre posts big profits Failed airlines, terrorists and general economic gloom were not enough to keep Australia's discount travel leader from posting a record profit in 2001. Flight Centre, the brainchild of Graham "Screw" Turner, came in with an A$21 million profit last year—a 20 percent rise from the year before. Even with a 12 percent rise in revenues the no-frills company, which specializes in finding the cheapest airfares, was able to beat the odds and post a profit. Despite slow progress due to the events of September 11, Turner said he would continue to expand the company in the US and Canada. He said he did not expect global travel to fully recover until the middle of the year. French wine makers have woken up to the barbarians pounding on the gate and are planning a major counterattack to regain their export dominance. According to an Australian winemaker based in the heart of enemy territory, the French wine industry is drawing up plans to win back market share from Australia's Southcorp and BRL Hardy. Although never a threat to the French domestic market, Australian and other foreign wines have steadily quashed the French hold on British and American consumers. Alarmed by the unspeakable (that anyone would prefer non-French wine, Mon Dieu!) the French government commissioned a report into the situation. The report determined that consumers would always prefer the real French thing to any upstart New World beverage. In a country traditionally said to have been made on the sheep's back, a steady run of record high wool prices can only be good news. Although dropping slightly in the past month, wool prices are higher than they have been in over a decade. The steady auction prices have been attributed to China's return to the market and the earlier sell-off of Australia's massive wool stockpile. Farmers are now offering two-year-old wool for sale and withdrawing their product from auction if it does not fetch enough. A farming couple from Victoria took advantage of the buoyant market to sell their top-grade 94-kilogram bale of wool for a record A$131,000. The wool was sold to an Italian miller to be used to make high-fashion suits worth at least A$40,000 each. Writer: © Copyright 2001. Galt Western Personnel Ltd. Unless otherwise specified, you may reprint this article, quote from it, use it in research or projects, duplicate it or distribute it. Credit of authorship and source MUST be given to galtglobalreview.com. Ownership of Copyright remains with Galt Western Personnel Ltd.
Business
News / Business Roundup
- Australia / Canada / Europe / United
States / Careers / Classified / Information
Technology / New Technology / Education
News / World Facts / Book
Reviews / Archives/Research
|