WHEN Celebrate WA announced Western Australia's Citizen of Year awards for 2009 two weekends ago the presence of the University of Western Australia would not have escaped the attention of many.
Fini Group founder Tony Fini has negotiated a $180 million deal to sell his retirement village portfolio to investment bank Babcock & Brown and prominent retirement village player Primelife Corporation Ltd.
About seven years ago, Little Creatures co-founder Howard Cearns was finding it tough to sell the beer he had brewed with his mates, Phil Sexton, Adrian Fini and Nic Trimboli.
Perth is set to have a new brewing company, with property developer Adrian Fini a key player in the Mindarie development of a micro-brewery pilot plant for the new Indian Ocean Brewing Company led by hospitality veteran St John Hammond.
Blackburne Properties Pty Ltd will still have a role in the $700 million redevelopment of Burswood's 19.1ha Swan site despite Mirvac's merger with local competitor, the Fini Group, to form Mirvac/Fini.
