Report says banks have swooped in on DFO: Midday Roundup

Banks have moved in on two companies that are part of the Direct Factory Outlets group, according to a report by Fairfax.

According to the report, a group of banks led by Suncorp-Metway placed the debt-laden South Wharf Retail and South Wharf Tower into receivership in November.

KordaMentha partner Craig Shepard was contacted this morning, but was not available prior to publication.

The new report claims the companies involved in the projects owed more than $175 million, with $33.5 million to the banks. It is also reported the Australian Taxation Office moved against two other companies involved in the South Wharf development over a $2.3 million tax bill.

The Australian Taxation Office was contacted this morning, but said it could not comment on private tax matters.

Optus signs NBN wholesale agreement

The nation’s second largest telco says it has signed up to a key commercial agreement that will allow it to sign up customers to the National Broadband Network, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

The wholesale broadband agreement outlines the access terms for companies using the network for the next year.

Optus’ signing isolates Telstra, which is the only large ISP to remain in negotiations over the agreement.

But analysts say that due to Telstra’s dominant position through its copper network means it has more at stake, and negotiations may drag on for weeks.

NBN Co. has said it will prevent ISPs who haven’t signed the agreement from registering new customers to the network.

Many of the ISPs were concerned about their legal liability for network outages.

Stock market rises on US bank gains

The Australian stock market is trading over half a per cent higher, after Wall Street rose on positive banking results.

At 11.00 AEST the S&P/ASX200 was trading 0.67% higher.

Nine of the top 10 most widely held stocks were trading in the black this morning. Woolworths fell 0.68% after a report in The Australian quoted its competitor Coles saying it intended to continue its downward pressure on milk prices.

Lynas shares led the market, soaring 5.65% to $1.21 on speculation the rare-earths miner will be granted the go-ahead on its Malaysian facility. This compounded its rises earlier in the week, as it posted a significant increase on its resource projection at its Western Australian Mount Weld project.

Dragging the market down was Abacas Property Group, which lost 3.42%.

IT systems rollout delays TRUenergy float

TRUenergy’s plans for a $3 billion float have been put on hold due to delays to their IT system upgrade and continued global volatility, according to a report in this morning’s The Australian.

The power company’s owner, Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings, said it was not willing to proceed with the float until its new billing system could boast several months of glitch-free operations.

The float could be delayed until later this year, depending on the performance of global equity markets. The fourth quarter of 2012 is now seen as the earliest possible timing for the float.

Shorten optimistic about growth in finance industry

Federal Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten says that while bank job losses are “unfortunate” he is confident the industry will grow over the next five years.

Shorten told Business Spectator that his department had forecast an expansion in financial services.

Shorten also defended the ability of the Government to both return the economy to surplus and protect it from ongoing recessionary problems in the medium-term.

“It is important we get back to surplus, so that we have our economy in the most robust shape, not only for tomorrow’s crisis, but next week, next month, next year’s challenges as well,” he said.