Australia

A restructured Colorado Group will emerge from receivership as the newly named Fusion Retail Brands, flush with a $70 million capital expenditure and marketing war chest to drive its success in the tough retail environment, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The appearance of Fusion will help secure the future of flagship Australian brands that once made up the Colorado Group - Diana Ferrari, JAG, Mathers and Williams - as well as the company's 2200 staff working across 282 stores.

After one of the ugliest retail downturns in two decades, corporate doctors are warning that more retailers will hit the wall in the next 12 months, The Australian reported. "This is the hardest retail environment I've seen in 20 years," Ferrier Hodgson partner and retail specialist James Stewart said. Mr Stewart expects more insolvencies among retailers in the next 12 months. PwC retail partner Stuart Harker also expects more retailers to go into voluntary administration or receivership in the next year.

Australia’s largest seller of solar panels, Solar Shop, has been placed in receivership and will be put up for sale, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. On Wednesday Ferrier Hodgson was appointed receivers and managers of the Adelaide-based business that employs 200 people directly and has a dozen display centres around the country. Ferrier partner John Lindholm said it would be business as usual while the receivers, acting on behalf of secured creditor Westpac, conducted an urgent review of the business, which also includes Solar Hut.

One of Sydney's most famous car dealers, with a sprawling dealership that has become a city landmark, has hit a roadblock, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Rick Damelian's Damelian Group, which made headlines when it unsuccessfully tried to sell Lara Bingle's Aston Martin, was placed in receivership yesterday owing National Australia Bank about $80 million. The receiver, Ferrier Hodgson, moved quickly to calm customers by insisting no new car buyers would be left out of pocket.

The Queensland Government says there was nothing it could do to prevent one of the biggest tourism developments at Airlie Beach, in the Whitsundays region of the state's north, from going into receivership, ABC News reported. Administrators took control of the $200 million Meridien Marinas Port of Airlie project earlier this week. The development includes 56 apartments, 15 beachfront land lots, marina berths and a retail and dining precinct.

One of the few bright spots in real estate amid a three-year global slump, Australia now faces falling home prices and fears of overbuilding, The Wall Street Journal reported. A downturn in Australia's real estate market will add to concerns of a two-speed economy in the resource-rich nation. Mining profits are surging due to heavy demand from China and other fast-growing Asian countries, but consumer businesses and manufacturing have faltered under the weight of the swollen Australian dollar, which is trading near 30-year highs to the U.S. currency.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard expressed concern Thursday about the outlook for global growth, warning that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis is far from being resolved and the U.S. is only beginning to deal with its fiscal problems, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a wide-ranging interview Thursday, Ms. Gillard said the inability of Europe's leaders up to now to calm markets worried over the economic health of the euro zone was the world economy's biggest challenge. Confidence has also been dented by a "spectacular" political deadlock in the U.S.

China Petrochemical Corp.'s partner in its only oil production venture in Australia appointed administrators Monday, a move that underscores how some of China's earliest investments in the resource-rich country have struggled to meet expectations, The Wall Street Journal reported. AED Oil Ltd. raised US$561 million in 2008 when it sold 60% of its underperforming Puffin oil field in the Timor Sea to China Petrochemical Corp., also known as Sinopec.

The chairman of the $75 billion Future Fund has warned the debt crisis engulfing Europe and the United States could take at least 20 years to resolve, causing ongoing market volatility, The Australian reported. David Murray warned the post-global financial crisis environment would continue to be characterised by a series of market shocks, with investor uncertainty heightened by concerns over the ability of political systems to contain any emerging meltdown.

Shadow broker Kinetic Securities is to appoint administrators Monday in a collapse its directors blame on the global financial crisis, sluggish post-GFC low-volume market conditions and increasing regulatory requirements, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The appointment of voluntary administrators, expected to be Ferrier Hodgson, comes just weeks after the corporate regulator suspended its Australian Financial Services Licence then reinstated it and follows a move by a creditor to wind it up.