Financial Services

Perth-based WHL Energy says its heavily oversubscribed $10 million share placement will provide the funds to progress its Seychelles oil and gas project towards farm-out and drilling.

Perth-based gold miner Focus Minerals says it will raise $40 million to accelerate production at its greenfields Treasure Island gold project near Kalgoorlie, through an institutional placement and share purchase plan.

Perth-based corporate taxation accounting firm, Monash Group, has merged with Pitcher Partners.

AMP says the year ahead remains uncertain for the wealth manager despite overcoming market volatility and consumer caution to post a five per cent increase in full year net profit.

Radhika Oswal will argue in the Supreme Court of Victoria that ANZ invalidly appointed PPB Advisory as receivers and managers over Burrup Fertilisers, because she believes Burrup was never in default of its debt repayments to the bank.

Westpac Banking Corporation chief executive Gail Kelly says business credit demand is likely to pick up in the second half of fiscal 2011, and could rebound quite quickly.

Interest rates are not excessively restrictive but Australians are becoming more cautious about their funds, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens says.

Bankwest has recovered from last year's slump with an interim net profit of $224 million, after reducing its impaired loans expense and cutting business lending by 10 per cent.

Equatorial Resources has announced plans for an institutional placement to raise $25.6 million to accelerate the company's drilling and exploration activities in the Republic of Congo.

Competition in the housing loans market is being bolstered by a revival of wholesale funding, with Australian Finance Group re-launching its securitisation business and Police & Nurses Credit Society launching its first-ever issue of mortgage-backed secur

Westpac and National Australia Bank have joined the ANZ and Commonwealth in lifting their lending rate above the official rate rise of 0.25 of a percentage point.

ANZ has become the second major banking group to increase interest rates on housing and business loans by substantially more than the rise in official interest rates.

Shares in Austal closed up more than 15 per cent, after the shipbuilder agreed to changes to its US Navy contract to build 10 coastal warships.

The Reserve Bank has lifted the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.75 per cent after expressing concern about the risk of inflation rising again over the medium term.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank says there's "nothing new" in a statement of claim against it lodged in the Federal Court by Sydney law firm DC Legal on behalf of investors in the Great Southern managed investment schemes.

Investors in new market entrant Aphrodite Gold have suffered a paper loss, after the miner finished below its issue price on its first day of trading.

West-Perth based Atlantic has announced plans for a $55 million capital raising to fund construction and commissioning of the Windimurra vanadium project in Western Australia.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) is urging the Federal Government not to step back from its budget announcement that it will gradually increase the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) to 12 percent.

Port Bouvard is set to receive a much needed lifeline from Queensland's FKP Property Group, which has agreed to chip in nearly $23 million to a planned $60.2 million capital raising.

West Perth-based Aphrodite Gold has today opened its $10 million initial public offer to progress exploration and development at its namesake deposit which it recently bought from Apex Minerals.

West Perth-based Adelphi Energy has urged its shareholders to take no action regarding an on-market takeover offer launched today by its major shareholder, oil and gas company AWE.

Gindalbie Metals plans to tap the market for up to $206 million to fund its Karara iron ore joint venture, days after it announced a capital cost increase at the Mid West project.

Osborne Park-based explorer Viking Ashanti has made an underwater debut on the local stock exchange with its share price closing 8 per cent below the issue price.

ANZ and Westpac have joined the other big banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank in raising the standard variable home loan interest rate in line with the 25 basis point rise by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Patersons Securities has today opened its new office in East Perth after luring a smaller than expected group of advisers from RBS Morgans' Perth division.

Dual-listed CGA Mining will become a strategic investor in Sierra Mining after agreeing to take a 10 per cent stake in the Perth-based explorer through a private placement.

Atlas Iron has today confirmed it will raise up to $63.5 million to fund expansion plans for its operations in the Pilbara.

The National Australia Bank's move to abolish a number of its fees has earned it the inaugural banking leadership award, among others, at the Canstar Cannex's Innovation Excellence awards.

Western Australian consumers have taken a cautious approach towards taking on new debt with demand for mortgage and personal credit falling during the first quarter of the year as compared to the same period last year, a new study has found.

Iron Ore Holdings managing director Matthew Rimes has spent $3 million exercising options at less than half the value of the company's last traded price.

Belmont-based Aurora Minerals has raised $15.5 million through a share placement, with funds to be applied to its Capricorn South East manganese project in the south of the Pilbara region.

Kerry Stokes' Seven Network has cleared the final hurdle in its merger with privately-owned industrial equipment business WesTrac, with the Federal Court today approving the $3 billion deal.