Australia & New Zealand: News

Australian employment rose by more than expected in September but unemployment also jumped to the highest in over two years as more people looked for work, a mixed report that should not  challenge market expectations for more cuts in interest rates.

Top global miner BHP Billiton said it plans to shed an undisclosed number of jobs in iron ore, its most profitable business, as it battles weaker demand and higher costs, adding to mining job losses in Australia.

Australian business conditions weakened in September as retailers and wholesalers suffered from slack demand, while inflationary pressures remained very subdued, adding to the case for further cuts in interest rates.

Australian surfwear retailer Billabong International, which is fending off a $700 million private equity bid, said on Tuesday it has appointed former fashion executive Ian Pollard as chairman to guide a turnaround.

Australia faces a gathering threat to its 21-year run of recession-free growth that will likely require the central bank to cut interest rates to record lows and keep them there for some time, if the winning streak is to stretch to 22.

Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the internet fell 2.8 percent in September, a sixth straight month of decline that points to some softening in labor demand, a survey showed on Monday.

Australia's Queensland state government said on Monday it was selling $1.5 billion worth of shares in QR National, the country's top coal-freight operator, with the company planning to buy back two-thirds of those shares.

Australia's top supermarket operator Woolworths said on Friday it plans to spin off 69 shopping centers into a$1.4 billion property group, which will raise up to A$506 million to partly fund the deal.

Australia's Billabong International lost almost a quarter of its market value after a report said the last remaining bidder, private equity firm TPG Capital Management, might follow former suitors and ditch its takeover offer for the surfwear retailer.

Australian retail sales edged up only marginally in August as weakness in household goods and clothing pointed to restraint in discretionary spending, adding to the case for further supportive cuts in interest rates.

Woolworths, Australia's largest supermarket chain, posted a drop in second-half net profit and forecast growth in the current year below market expectations, as uncertainty over the global economy deepened the gloom in the country's retail sector.

Indonesia's PT Berlian Laju Tanker, the world's third-largest chemical shipper, hopes to restructure its $1.9 billion debt by the year-end and will switch its focus to niche liquid chemical and gas transport, its founder and chairman said in a rare media interview.

Australia's trade deficit blew out to its widest in three-and-a-half years in August as falling prices for iron ore and coal ate into export earnings, just the latest sign of how China's slowdown is hurting the resource-rich country.

The rise in the New Zealand dollar against the Australian dollar is adding to pressure on local exporters, but analysts said it has not reached a level that will push the central bank to change rates.

Australian iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest and Fortescue Metals Group won a High Court appeal to overturn a conviction for misleading investors, allowing the billionaire to return as an executive director to the company he founded.  

A consortium including Noble Group and Posco has bid A$1.01 billion ($1.04 billion) for Australian mining and steel company Arrium, joining a string of firms aiming to cash in on a drop in the value of resource firms due to tumbling commodities prices.