Senior journalist with The Australian Financial Review. Retail, wine, beer, food, building materials, agribusiness, mergers & acquisitions. [email protected]
South Australia
Joined December 2013
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Penfolds owner Treasury Wines sells Rosemount label back to billionaire Oatley family for a fraction of the original $1.5 billion price in a deal 25 years earlier. Oatley family sold Hamilton Island for $1.2b in 2025. afr.com/companies/retail/tre…
Blast furnace at Whyalla steel mill pronounced dead after more than 60 years. A relic from BHP days. The total number of redundancies is 600, comprising full-time workers and contractors. Sale process continues. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Whyalla steelworks blast furnace prounced officially dead, as restart fails. About half of the 1100 steelworks jobs to be axed, with rolling mill to continue. Any new owner will take three years to build modern furnace. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Former soccer star now runs a $9 billion drone components giant. Codan CEO Alf Ianniello played a handful of matches with Socceroo legends John Aloisi and Tony Vidmar at top club level in the 1990s. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Car owners are bypassing regular servicing at mechanics' workshops, or opting for just an oil change instead of the full works. But Autobarn and Burson owner Bapcor appears to be turning the corner. afr.com/companies/retail/car…
Canadian private equity giant Brookfield lobs $4.1 billion takeover bid for plumbing supplies group Reliance Worldwide. After 10 years on the ASX, Reliance makes 55pc of sales in USA. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Penfolds owner Treasury Wine Estates slashes value of its United States wine business for the second time in nine months. US writedowns climb to $1.25 billion. Made big acqusitions in California in 2021 and 2023.
afr.com/companies/retail/tre…
Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund takes $3.6 billion stake in the Australian operations of meat giant JBS. With Primo smallgoods, Huon salmon and Rivalea pork, JBS employs 17,000 people in Australasia. afr.com/life-and-luxury/food…
Sanjeev Gupta’s Tasmanian smelter to be liquidated in painful blow for jobs. ASX hopeful Firmus hopes to build a data centre nearby, but the local butcher and hardware store operator are fuming over the collapse. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Some of the afterglow from SpaceX IPO? A former CEO of financial services and investment giant Macquarie and an ex-CFO are among investors in a $25m capital raising by Australian group Southern Launch. afr.com/technology/ex-macqua…
Australia's market leader in soy, oat and almond milk, Vitasoy, is still making losses in the $600 million market. Even though local baristas are serving up more and more oat and soy lattes. afr.com/companies/retail/vit…
Coal magnate Matt Latimore's M Resources pitched against Indian steelmaker Jindal in Whyalla steelworks and iron ore mines sale process. BlueScope Steel still has the right to match a final bid, but interest cools. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Elizabeth Gaines to exit from Andrew Forrest's Fortescue 'family'. Steps down from board and as global 'green energy' ambassador. Ends 13-year stint, four as CEO. West Coast Eagles chair since 2025. afr.com/companies/mining/eli…
ASX pallets giant Brambles has its worst day on the stock exchange for almost 25 years, with shares plunging. Labour shortages in USA mean it can't repair CHEP pallets fast enough to service retail customers. afr.com/companies/retail/unr…
KFC operator Collins Foods, which runs one third of the 800 KFC stores in Australia, is finally cutting loose 27 Taco Bell outlets which battled to make headway. Guzman y Gomez, Zambrero, had its measure. afr.com/companies/retail/kfc…
Axe falls at Sanjeev Gupta’s Tahmoor Coal mine in NSW with liquidator McGrath Nicol cutting 238 jobs - more than two thirds of the remaining workforce at a business acquired from Glencore in 2018. afr.com/companies/mining/mcg…
A MotoGP round shifts to an Adelaide street circuit in 2027, ending almost 30 years of being hosted in Victoria. A billionaire family was instrumental in the deal but it didn't quite work out the way it wanted. afr.com/companies/transport/…
BlueScope shareholders gain hefty dividend increase and there's more to come. The steelmaker loosens pursestrings after rejecting $13b buyout proposal from Stokes family's SGH and Steel Dynamics. afr.com/companies/manufactur…
Penfolds owner Treasury Wine Estates scraps its first half dividend after huge loss. Shareholders feel the pain as wine consumption falls around the globe. afr.com/companies/retail/pen…
Former NRL player Wes Maas started in 2002 with a bobcat and $14,000. Sells large part of Aust firm for $1.7 billion to German giant in pivot to construction and electrical supply for AI boom. Rabbitohs. afr.com/companies/infrastruc…
