Lend Lease Group is now considering the potential acquisition of ING Retail Property Fund, the company announced in a statement.
It said the company was involved in the “competitive process for the acquisition of the ING Retail Property Fund”, and said its negotiations “may or may not lead to a transaction”.
“Lend Lease, together with its managed Funds and capital partners reviews a range of asset acquisition opportunities from time to time,” a statement said. “Currently this includes a potential acquisition of the ING Retail Property Funds.”
As reported in the Australian Financial Review, Lend Lease and Future Fund may be the preferred parties to buy the fund which is now valued at $1.4 billion.
The Federal Government has announced a new stage of the National Broadband Network, with 6,000 kilometres of regional fibre now planned.
“This priority $250 million investment will directly benefit more than 395,000 people in 100 regional locations and create new jobs across five states and the Northern Territory,” communications minister Stephen Conroy said in a statement.
“These regional backbones are the first building blocks of the National Broadband Network on the mainland and will stimulate competition and better broadband services across regional Australia.”
Leighton Holdings-owned Nextgen has signed an agreement with the Government to build the new “backbone infrastructure”, with 100 access points to be delivered to six priority locations including Geraldton in WA, Darwin, Emerald and Longreach in QLD, Broken Hill in NSW, Victor Harbor in SA and South West Gippsland in VIC.
Conroy said the investment will create over 1,000 full-time jobs, with the infrastructure to connect cities as a precursor to larger construction efforts for the network.
Shares fall after weak Wall Street results
The Australian sharemarket has opened lower today after mixed results on Wall Street, where stocks failed to rise a second day after the release of some optimistic economic data.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 56 points or 1.19% to 4717.7 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar opened slightly lower at US92c.
Commonwealth Bank shares increased by 0.1% to $54.16, while NAB shares decreased by 1.6% to $28.23. Westpac lost 0.8% to $24.26, with ANZ also losing 1.1% to $21.96.
Power group Origin Energy has now secured a deal with Salamander Energy to acquire some interests in a portfolio of five exploration blocks in Northeast Thailand, with an active drilling program set to begin targeting resources with over 400 million barrels of oil.
“We are pleased to engage with Salamander, a company that has extensive experience operating in south-east Asia, and look forward to working with the company to develop opportunities in this region of growing energy demand,” managing director Grant King
Also in the energy sector, participants in the Woodside Petroleum-led Browse Basin liquefied natural gas joint venture have now received lease renewal offers from the WA Government.
The terms of the renewal state that federal resources minister Martin Ferguson and WA petroleum minister Norman Moore will push for an agreement plan to be formed in the next four months, with a final investment decision to be made in 2012.
ConnectEast announces highest average traffic number
Melbourne toll road operator ConnectEast Group has announced the highest number of average daily trips on the EastLink tollway since its opening in July 2008.
The company said the average daily trips during November reached 169,530 – 19.4% higher than in November 2008, and 0.3% higher than in October 2009. Average daily revenue was $553,434, an increase of 25.8% from November 2008.
Overseas, the Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas joint venture which includes ExxonMobil, Santos and Oil Search has now made an agreement to sell LNG to Chinese company Sinopec.
The agreement will see the venture sell two million tonnes of LNG annually over 20 years, while the gas will go to a terminal in China. No timeline or agenda has been given, nor any confirmation of when sales will begin.
In London, mining group Xstrata announced it plans to increase capital spending next year by 89% to $US6.8 billion in order to expand its output, and is considering whether to close some copper smelters.
The company also estimated capital expenditure of $US3.6 billion this year, chief financial officer Trevor Reid said at an investor seminar.
In New York, stocks fell after new private data showed the services sector shrank during November, negating optimistic data released yesterday regarding unemployment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86.53 points or 0.83% to 10,366.15.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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