Australian coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings said on Monday it was in talks to buy the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET), which urgently needs to restructure $3 billion in debt, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A purchase would mark a change in strategy under new Chief Executive Andrew Harding for Australia's largest rail freight operator, which runs nearly 2,700 kms (1,680 miles) of rail lines transporting millions of tonnes of coal a year.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. full-year earnings rose 18 percent on growth in its domestic banking businesses and lower bad debts, even as margins narrowed, Bloomberg News reported. Unaudited cash profit, which excludes one-time items, rose to A$6.94 billion ($5.3 billion) in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from A$5.9 billion a year earlier, the Melbourne-based bank said in a statement Thursday. That compares with the A$6.97 billion median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Australia’s central bank has warned that household borrowing is a key risk to the country’s financial system as higher interest rates could see households struggle to repay their debt, the Financial Times reported. “Higher interest rates, or falls in income, could see some highly indebted households struggle to service their debt and so curtail their spending,” the RBA said in its latest Financial Stability Review. Low interest rates and weak wage growth have seen debt levels relative to income edge higher, the central bank said.

Arup, the London-based global engineering company, is being sued in Australia for $2bn by the receivers of a Brisbane toll road that failed because its traffic forecasts proved optimistic, the Financial Times reported. BrisConnections, the company that built a toll road linking Brisbane’s central business district with its airport — which was finished in 2012 — went into administration the following year with debts worth more than $3bn.

U.S. media company CBS Corp. plans to acquire Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd., beating out a bid from Australian media moguls Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch for the company after it went into receivership, The Wall Street Journal reported. CBS’s bid was favored by receivers for Ten Network, one of Australia’s three main broadcasters, over a proposal from Messrs. Gordon and Murdoch, who wanted to run the broadcaster as a joint venture, people familiar with the deal said. Mr.

Paladin Energy, operators of Kayelekela Uranaium Mine in Karonga Malawi and Langer Heinrich in Namibia has filed for insolvency at the Australian high court after the company failed to pay a debt of USD277 million to a France based company called Electricite de France, The Southern Times reported. Kayelekera Uranium Mine in northern Malawi was the country’s only large-scale mining operation. But for more than five years, the mine is not operating and is under ‘care and maintenance’ because of global low uranium prices.

The future of Australia’s Ten Network is in doubt after big shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, son of News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, decided not to back a financial restructuring of the struggling broadcaster, the Financial Times reported. Financial advisers to Illyria Limited, an investment vehicle linked to Lachlan Murdoch that owns 7.7 per cent of Ten, told the company on Tuesday that Illyria would not extend or increase its support for the broadcaster’s credit facility.

Australian investment bank Macquarie has been hired to find an investor for insolvent German solar panel maker SolarWorld, the company's insolvency administrator said on Thursday, Reuters reported. SolarWorld, once Europe's biggest solar power equipment group, last month said it would file for insolvency, overwhelmed by Chinese rivals who had long been a thorn in the side of founder and CEO Frank Asbeck, once known as "the Sun King".

The Reserve Bank of Australia frequently seeks feedback on the health of the economy. It might want to call the debt counselors soon. Homeowners, consumers and property investors around Australia are making more calls to financial helplines as three warning signs back up the spike in demand: mortgage arrears are creeping up, lenders’ bad debt provisions have increased and personal insolvencies are near an all-time high, Bloomberg News reported.

U.K. Green Investment Bank Plc, the state lender put up for sale by the government, will be dramatically restructured if it’s sold to Macquarie Group Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Australian bank Macquarie, seen as one of the most likely buyers, would divide the Green Investment Bank, or GIB, into at least two units, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are confidential. One or more would manage existing loans while another would work on deals yet to reach financial close, the people said.