The listed pub fund ING Real Estate Entertainment Fund’s chances of ever getting millions of dollars in rent from its largest tenant appear slim, after Icon Hospitality was placed into receivership today, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Icon, which owns the leasehold to 11 hotels in and around Sydney, was placed into receivership by its bankers, Commonwealth Bank. It is owned by prominent hoteliers Damien Reed and Peter Wynne, and owes more than $60 million to the bank.

Receivers for Burrup Fertilisers are examining whether an Australia-India extradiction treaty could be used against Pankaj Oswal, The Australian reported. Mr Oswal left Australia just before ANZ Bank appointed receivers to his fertiliser empire on December 17. He confirmed at the weekend that he and his family would not return to Perth. He said he was living in New Delhi but may relocate to Dubai, close to where he has plans to develop a $400 million caustic soda plant in Oman.

Receivers have been appointed to the $500 million Raine Square office/retail tower project in Perth, which was being jointly developed by rich list member Luke Saraceni and fellow property developer Hossean Pourzard, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Major lender Bankwest – which has also signed on as the 20-storey tower's major tenant – called in receivers Mark Korda and Cliff Rocke of insolvency firm Korda Mentha in conjunction with fellow lender Bank of Scotland.

The convoluted saga of debt-laden Australian shopping-center owner Centro Properties Group has taken yet another twist: Most of the banks set to decide Centro's fate by December have been replaced by hedge funds and other opportunistic investors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Gone are most of the lenders that originated Centro's roughly $5.5 billion in unsecured debt coming due at the end of this year, having sold their positions in recent months.

Tasmania's largest private ambulance service is facing insolvency, ABC News reported. Ambulance Private's owner blames the State Government and says Ambulance Tasmania will need millions of dollars to pick up the thousands of patients his company transports every year. A State Government review in 2007 recommended Ambulance Tasmania stop outsourcing non-emergency patient transport to private companies and set up its own business unit. As a result, Ambulance Private's managing director David Watson says his company will go under within a week.

The Advanced Medical Institute, the failed erectile dysfunction firm infamous for its billboards, owed staff and creditors more than $50 million when it collapsed last month, the company's administrator says, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. And in a move to appease the competition regulator, unhappy customers will now also be able to obtain refunds more easily after the administrator extended the company's refund policy to 30 days.

A silent partner in collapsed medical services firm Advanced Medical Institute Pty Ltd (AMI) has been linked to the disappearance of $118 million in superannuation finds to a Caribbean bank account, according to a Fairfax Media report, the Business Spectator reported. According to the report, American born Hong Kong trader Jack Flader controls a group with a 50 per cent interest in AMI. Mr Flader is allegedly the mastermind behind collapsed firm Astarra Strategic Fund, part of the Trio Capital group based in country New South Wales.

Blackstone Group LP has jumped into the bidding war for Australian shopping-center owner Centro Properties Group, intensifying what is likely to be one of the largest property takeover battles of 2011, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Blackstone, among the world's largest buyout firms, with $100 billion under management, made a preliminary offer known as an "indicative bid" by the Dec. 17 deadline set by Centro.

Takeovers in Australia surged to a record this quarter, renewing investment bankers’ hopes that 2011 will uncork a backlog of deals in a commodities-led revival, Bloomberg News reported today. The value of announced acquisitions since Sept. 30 more than quadrupled from a year ago to $63 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, the most since records began in 1998. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-biggest mining company, today offered A$3.9 billion ($3.9 billion) for Australian coking coal developer Riversdale Mining Ltd. Bank of America Corp. and Nomura Holdings Inc.

DP World said Wednesday it sold 75 percent of its Australian port interests to an infrastructure fund managed by Citigroup Inc. for around 1.5 billion Australian dollars ($1.49 billion) to reduce debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Dubai-based ports operator, majority-owned by government conglomerate Dubai World, will retain a 25 percent interest in DP World Australia, which operates five container terminals. The sale price includes repayment of loans owed to DP World by DP World Australia, it said.