The top end of the accounting profession in Western Australia has nearly doubled in size over the past decade, whereas the state's major law firms have recorded minimal growth, according to employment data compiled by Business News.
Information technology provider Amcom Telecommunications' share price has risen sharply after telco group Vocus Communications said it had acquired a 10 per cent stake and proposed a merger of the two companies.
FEATURE: The writing was on the wall, and has been for more than a decade. Royal Dutch Shell's divestment of most of its 23 per cent stake in Woodside Petroleum last week surprised few in the business community.
SPECIAL REPORT: The past 12 months have been tough for WA's corporate finance professionals, but there is cautious optimism that 2014 will be a different story.
After a record-breaking 2012, the past 12 months have been pretty quiet for new office construction in Perth, with little significant space to be added until 2015.
Sundance Resources is on the brink of big changes, as its 18-month takeover saga approaches a finale and its African iron ore project completes major milestones.
TWO Perth law firms have completed mergers this month, with Q Legal joining with a Queensland firm, and Nedlands-based Cullen Babington Macleod buying a specialist liquor-licensing practice and ado
AUSTRALIAN law firm Allens Arthur Robinson has added to the extraordinary variety in the Australian legal sector by finding a new way to come together with its international partner.
Nine international and interstate law firms have entered the WA market in the past two-and-a-half years and more are likely to follow. The industry is still debating what it really means.
Osborne Park-based Tox Free Solutions says it is set to become the national leader in the hazardous waste industry after announcing a deal to purchase DoloMatrix International for $58 million.
Chinese investment group Wah Nam International has moved to gain full ownership of iron ore company Brockman Resources, through a takeover pitched at less than half the value of its original offer.
Gold miner Kingsgate Consolidated has announced a $3.75 per share off-market takeover offer for the minority interest in Laguna Resources it does not already own.
Law firms Jackson McDonald and McKenzie Moncrieff will merge to create a 32-partner firm with more than 120 professional staff, cementing it as the second biggest law firm in Western Australia.
Sandfire Resources has completed the retail component of its $103 million equity raising announced in November, with a total of $37 million raised from participating and eligible retail shareholders.
THE size of Western Australia's legal practices has fluctuated only mildly during the past 12 months despite the sector's changing dynamics as a result of the economic slowdown.
Three substantial commercial law firms have been established in Perth in the past year and each has adopted a fundamentally different strategy and business model.
Construction company Laing O'Rourke Ltd and the Dampier Port Authority hired two of Perth's top law firms last year when they became enmeshed in a complex dispute over the building of a new jetty; but that hasn't helped them achieve an effective outcome.
The new financial year has triggered a series of changes at the top of Perth's big law firms with senior partners leaving MinterEllison, Clayton Utz and Freehills.
Big corporate collapses such as Sons of Gwalia, EG Green Group, Henry Walker Eltin and most recently Westpoint Corporation have provided plenty of work for insolvency lawyers, but a much smaller deal has been hailed as the best restructuring of 2005.
The Paino family, owners of prominent South Fremantle business Sealanes, provides a telling case study of a management succession that has not run according to plan.
