Mark Pownall

A TAX-EFFECTIVE vineyard developer with close links to Australian wine giant Orlando Wyndham is planning to expand its Margaret River holdings as part of $10 million fund raising effort.

THE Fremantle Fishermen’s Coopera-tive Society has moved a step closer to a corporate restructure, airing a formal proposal to members to become an unlisted public company.

AUSTRALIA’S providers of financial advice are set to see a quiet revolution in the way they are licensed, with a new regime likely to be in place by October governing the way they do business.

TUART Resources has moved to enforce an agreement with WA businessman Dean Scooks, his business partner Carol Hardie and their associates indemnifying the company against net liabilities of almost $5 million stemming from the takeover

IT was billed as a showdown but there ended up being a surprising amount of common ground between those chosen to debate Tax Effective Investments: Are they Worth the Risk?

THE new management of two Kimberley cattle stations has refused to identify the investors who have bought the remote properties which are littered with priceless Aboriginal art.

THE One.Tel debacle has led to unprecedented calls to end corporate greed, even from politicians who themselves are being examined for their own indulgent superannuation system.

THE tax-effective investment world will be closely watching a major test case in the Federal Court which started this week between the Australian Taxation Office and promoter Budplan.

GENETICALLY modified crop research has been scaled back in WA to a fraction of the area trialled during the 2000 season.

AS the convention saga continues, Business News offers its support to the tourism industry, which must start to hurt when so much uncertainty exists.

THE Australian Taxation Office has referred up to a dozen tax-effective investment scheme promoters to other authorities and regulators, including the National Crime Authority.

AGRO-FORESTRY group ITC’s capital raising of between $13 million and $15 million is more than a cosmetic effort to improve its appeal to foreign interests.

BEEF prices might be up but almost no-one is speculating that moves by Warren Anderson’s Tipperary Developments on two Kimberley pastoral stations have anything to do with cattle.

TAX practitioners offered caustic responses to the Budget announcements claiming to have found little more than one substantial tax change – the decision to bring forward by a year the full input tax credits for the purchase of motor

THE fortunes of WA construction giant Multiplex are not tied to the $330 million Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre project.

BUSINESS people praying for some economic stimulation from the Federal Govern-ment’s Budget will be disappointed.

PETER Costello’s sixth Federal Budget might have delivered little that business wasn’t already expecting, but the corporate world should not be too disappointed.

AMBERLEY Estate’s managing director and chief winemaker Eddie Price expects to quit the Margaret River operation at the end of the month when a deal to sell to Palandri is hoped to be completed.

THE Federal Government has unveiled a $500 million rescue package for the estimated 28,000 victims of the collapse of insurance giant HIH.

ASK any stockbroker about the current market and you are unlikely to get much enthusiasm.

MINING group turned wine investor Tuart Resources is dealing with a $200,000 hangover from its February purchase of Nelson Ridge, the company behind WA’s biggest vineyard development.

SHOULD anyone be surprised that business is delaying paying bills, extending the time it has taken to meet creditors’ demands by 10 per cent in two years?

IN something of a rarity for a family company, Alex Kailis is the third member of his family to run the group, yet he is only a second generation member.

THE state of Australia’s economy remained a sticky call this week with the release of a flood of variant data from ANZ, Reserve Bank, Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry reports.

TWENTY WA liquor stores trading under the Porters banner will have to wait at least two weeks before the future of their brand is known following Coles-Myer’s bid for its owner.

FRANCHISING is one of those odd concepts in business which create mixed feelings for market watchers.The franchise, by its very nature, limits creativity yet it still provides the flexibility to all grow faster than almost any business.

TURMOIL in the tax-effective market has prompted WA wine company Evans & Tate to drop plans to use a Managed Invest-ment Scheme structure to fund its Australasian Vineyard Trust.

THERE are a lot of relieved people in WA following the Federal Government’s decision to block Shell’s bid.

WINE services group 1Auswines.com has shelved its Internet and retail plans for an outlet at the West Perth site of the Perth Ice Works to concentrate on its bottling and storage plans.

TAX scheme investors have won a reprieve in their long-running battle against the Australian Taxation Office but underneath the seemingly united front there are big differences on just how the matter should be resolved.

I WAS amused to read the rantings of the latest protest movement in a bright green flyer that was being handed at the bus drivers strike meetings by people holding copies of Socialist Worker.

PETER Costello’s long awaited announcement on the future on Royal Dutch Shell’s bid on Woodside Petroleum has ended months of speculation on whether the takeover bid could proceed under Australia’s foreign investment guidelines.