Financial Services

Western Australia's unemployment rate has risen to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 per cent in September, bucking the national 0.1 per cent fall, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

Compulsory voting raises the hackles of many people but could there be merit in extending the concept to local councils and companies?

A NEW association representing not-for-profit employers in the non-government sector has been given approval by the state's Industrial Relations Commission to become a registered employer organisation.

Capital raisings by WA stocks were subdued during the September quarter as companies with larger equity appetites headed overseas.

Industry dismay over RBA rate rise  The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lift the official cash rate has caused surprise and dismay from various lobby groups, with one from WA saying the central bank has acted too hastily.

Small and large investors are going to have to get used to a new paradigm as the GFC fallout continues in 2010.

AS a pack of reporters thrust their dictaphones in front of Troy Buswell late last week, the treasurer remarked that it reminded him of something other than a press conference.

THE number of Western Australian companies considering listing on the local stock exchange may be gaining momentum, but the frantic activity from a couple of years ago is not likely to occur any time soon.

Directors in Western Australian-listed companies continued to embrace the free share-trading period after the black-out period concluded with the end of the reporting season.

INVESTORS in several failed Great Southern schemes are facing the double indignity of losing control of their assets and receiving a hefty tax bill.

Flouting basic economic principles can have disastrous consequences.

Claremont-based explorer Australia Minerals and Mining Group has added momentum to the re-emergence of companies seeking to list on the ASX, recently lodging its prospectus for a $7.5 million initial public offer.

Shares in Perth-based United Minerals Corporation have been placed in a trading halt pending an announcement over a potential change of control.

Demand for home loans in Western Australia has fallen 4.5 per cent in August as first home buyers retreat from the market, new figures show.

The corporate watchdog says it will start civil proceedings against a Perth financial advisory firm after clients invested $14 million into the failed Westpoint Group.

Nedlands-based explorer Integra Mining has confirmed it has raised $40 million, which will partly be used for the development of its Randalls gold project in the Goldfields.

Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications will receive a $21 million boost after revealing plans to clean up its capital structure.

IT services provider Empired will build on its presence in Victoria after securing a $3 million contract with the state government's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for infrastructure outsourcing services.

Lithium producer Galaxy Resources gained as much as 16 per cent in trading this morning after announcing the completion of a $65 million institutional capital raising to be used on its Mt Cattlin mine at Ravensthorpe and a Chinese lithium project.

Western Australia is likely to be one of the few developed economies in the world to avoid a recession during the global economic slowdown, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA said today in its quarterly economic snapshot.

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The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to lift the official cash rate has caused surprise and dismay from various lobby groups, with one from WA saying the central bank has acted too hastily.

Perth man Graeme Rundle has been charged by the corporate watchdog over his role as the chief financial controller in the failed Westpoint Group.

Australia has become the first western economy in the world to lift interest rates with the Reserve Bank of Australia today increasing the official cash rate by 25 basis points.

West Perth-based Emergent Resources will pay up to $6.8 million to De Grey Mining to acquire the remaining 20 per cent interest it does not own in the Beyondie magnetite iron project in the Mid West.

Territory Resources has executed an agreement with its financiers, hedge book facility provider and major shareholder Noble Resources for the transfer of the company's bank debt to Noble.

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Australia's job market has continued to strengthen despite talk of an interest rate rise, with 14 per cent of companies expecting to increase employee numbers in the December quarter, according to the latest Dun & Bradstreet's Business Expectations survey

Iron ore junior Australasian Resources is awaiting ministerial conditions to progress its Balmoral South iron ore development following the release of the Environmental Protection Authority's report on the project.

West Perth-based Northern Uranium has entered into an agreement to combine and advance its rock phosphate projects with Korean-based FSL Resources.

Perth-based Newland Resources has unveiled a "revitalisation" plan that includes three new major investors including Argonaut and Craig Burton, and a refocus on acquiring resource projects.

Heron Resources says the first tranche of a project joint venture deal with Ningbo Shanshan has been completed, with the Chinese entity injecting $2.7 million into the West Perth-based explorer.