Australia

Tomato processing company Cedenco Foods Australia has been placed into receivership but its processing facility will operate as usual, the Brisbane Times reported. This comes after Cedenco Foods in New Zealand was placed in receivership. The company continues to trade pending a sale of the business. ANZ Banking Group NZ subsidiary, ANZ National Bank, said on Monday that it had put receivers into Cedenco Foods. Announcing the move, ANZ National said it had committed seasonal funding to the receivers to allow Cedenco to continue to trade.

Hopes have soared that huge amounts of water from Australia's most famous cotton farm could return to the Murray Darling river system, after administrators were appointed to handle the affairs of Queensland's Cubbie Station, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. After months of trying to sell the huge station and its water entitlement to governments and agricultural businesses, Cubbie chairman Keith De Lacy said the company would be handed to administrators today. ''In the end it was drought that beat us,'' he said.

National Australia Bank Ltd., the country’s biggest corporate lender, turned to its first loss in at least nine years after charges for bad debts climbed and it set aside funds for a tax settlement in New Zealand, Bloomberg reported. The net loss of A$75 million ($69 million) in the second half ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of A$1.85 billion in the year-earlier period, the Melbourne-based bank said in a statement today. Cash earnings, which strip out one-time items, rose 8 percent to A$1.81 billion.

India’s central bank took the first step toward withdrawing its record monetary stimulus as inflation pressures build, ordering lenders to keep more cash in government bonds, Bloomberg reported. Stocks fell the most in two months after the statement spurred speculation the Reserve Bank of India will boost borrowing costs by year-end, eroding corporate profits. Today’s shift also signals intensifying global concern about consumer and asset-price increases, with Norway tomorrow forecast to follow Australia in raising rates this month.

Australian assembler and distributor, TodayTech, has gone into voluntary administration three months after losing a direct supplier relationship with key vendor partner, Intel. Rob Whitton of William Buck Chartered Accountants was appointed administrator by TodayTech’s directors. He said the business was likely to close in the next week, ARN reported. Headquartered in Sydney, TodayTech also maintains offices across Australia and has about 30 employees. Read more.

Timbercorp’s forestry assets have been sold for about $345 million to Australian Bluegum Plantations, a wholly owned subsidiary of US timber investment fund Global Forest Partners, The Australian reported. The company intends to set up its headquarters in the Green Triangle region of Victoria and South Australia, and in southwest Western Australia and retain the employees currently working for Timbercorp's forestry business. About $200 million of the sale proceeds have been allocated to about 10,000 so-called growers who invested in Timbercorp's woodlots.

An Australian court has ruled that local governments can pursue financial claims against collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in Australia and elsewhere, a firm that is funding the litigation said on Monday, Reuters reported. IMF (Australia) Ltd said the Federal Court ruled on Friday in favour of town councils and others which had lost money in collateralised debt obligations marketed and issued by Lehman, opening the door to legal claims to recover their losses.

There are signs in the Northern Mariana islands to declare the national pension fund bankrupt, a move that would put an abrupt stop to fortnightly payments to retirees, Radio Australia reported. The Retirement Association has angrily opposed the idea, calling on the government to cut back spending on what it sees as "bloated" agencies to ensure pension payments aren't jeopardised. It's a sorry turn-around for the fund, which five years ago was worth close to half a billion US dollars, but is now down to $US140 million. It's having to draw on its assets to meet pension payments.

A senate Inquiry has been told that hundreds of overseas students from the failed Sterling College in Sydney have still not been transferred to new courses, a month after the college collapsed, ABC News reported. The Federation of Indian Students of Australia says only 34 students have been found new places. About 500 mainly Indian students were affected when the college, which offers courses in information technology and community welfare, went into voluntary administration at the end of July. Read more.

Nursery furniture retailer BabyCo has gone into voluntary administration and only four of the company's 22 shops in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia will remain open, Big Pond News reported. Deloitte partners Tim Norman, Sal Algeri and Simon Cathro have been appointed as voluntary administrators of the company on Friday. Mr Norman says slow sales and the competitive nature of the retail industry prompted the company to appoint administrators.