Early investigations into the collapse of fashion brand Lisa Ho have found that a combination of questionable operating decisions, bad market conditions and "accounting irregularities" affected the viability and the cashflow of the retailer, which has imploded with debts of nearly $11 million, The Australian reported. Lisa Ho Designs and Lisa Ho Retail went into voluntary administration on May 8, less than a month after the company abandoned a listing on the National Stock Exchange, where funds raised were to have been be used to expand the fashion brand offshore and online.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan will eschew European-style austerity as a stronger currency slows growth, wagering the government can win a Sept. 14 election fought on jobs and absorb the pain of a broken surplus promise, Bloomberg reported. The underlying cash deficit will be A$18 billion ($17.9 billion) in the 12 months to June 30, 2014, Swan said in Canberra yesterday as he released the federal budget.

After all the promises by the federal government to clean up the insolvency industry, a report released on Wednesday by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission indicates that things are getting worse, not better, The Age reported in a commentary. There are 682 liquidators in Australia and a report by ASIC into the supervision of the profession reveals that it received 437 reports of alleged misconduct involving registered liquidators in the past year, which is up slightly on last year's 426 complaints.

Liquidators of Nathan Tinkler's Mulsanne Resources were given the go-ahead by the court to sue the struggling Australian tycoon for allegedly letting Mulsanne trade while insolvent, said one of Tinkler's creditors, Blackwood Corp., Reuters reported. Blackwood is trying to recover A$28.4 million ($29.5 million) that Tinkler's private company Mulsanne agreed to pay last year for a one-third stake in the coal explorer. As a result of the claim, a court late last year appointed liquidators to wind up Mulsanne.

An Australian Federal Court Justice has ordered an inquiry into the fees and expenses incurred by PPB Advisory while the insolvency group investigated the 2010 collapse of Burrup Fertilisers, SmartCompany.com.au reported. But PPB has defended its handling of the case, claiming the inquiry is narrow in scope and the court threw out nine of the 10 claims brought against the firm by Burrup founder Pankaj Oswal. The collapse of Burrup Fertilisers has dragged on for years. The business was originally placed in receivership in 2010, amid a dispute between Burrup and Norwegian part-owner Yara.

A US bankruptcy judge has approved a $US45 million ($43.3m) settlement between Lehman Brothers Holdings' Australian unit and a group of insurers over claims the bank misled a group of councils, charities and churches into buying risky securities backed by US mortgages, The Australian reported. Judge James Peck, of the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, yesterday signed off the settlement between 10 US insurance companies and the liquidators of Lehman Brothers Australia to settle the matter over collateralised debt obligations, or CDOs.

Voluntary administrators have been called in by the Australian fund manager in charge of a giant mortgage fund frozen since 2009 with the savings of many New Zealand investors trapped in it, Stuff.co.nz reported. The directors of LM Investment Management appointed John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting as voluntary administrators, saying the move was forced on it as a result of a smear campaign against it. LM was set up by Kiwi ex-pat businessman Peter Drake but after growing rapidly it hit trouble following the Global Financial Crisis as many of its property loans defaulted.

National Australia Bank Ltd.'s restructuring of its U.K. operations is on track and the unit is now profitable, however it continues to face challenges in a difficult U.K. market, its chief executive said, The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch reported. Consumer and business confidence in Australia also remains "fragile," and both companies and individuals here will likely remain reluctant to commit to major investments until sentiment regarding the economic outlook improves, Cameron Clyne said Sunday in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Inside Business program. Mr.

Nathan Tinkler became Australia's youngest billionaire in record time thanks to a series of aggressive bets on the country's coal mining sector, Reuters reported. But the man who started his career as a pit electrician acknowledged on Thursday he may have attempted one risky deal too many, leaving him with an undiversified portfolio that was heavily exposed to plummeting coal prices. "I got left holding the can," Tinkler told an Australian court during a grilling about his failure to pay junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) for an agreed share placement deal.

Embattled Australian coal tycoon Nathan Tinkler appeared in a Sydney court on Thursday to face a public grilling for the first time over the state of his finances, as creditors seek to recover millions of dollars in unpaid debts, Reuters reported. Tinkler, 37, flew in from his home in Singapore having been threatened with arrest if he failed to present himself in the New South Wales Supreme Court. He lost a last-minute bid to avoid questioning over a A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) debt to junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd.