The

George Street

Review

ISSUE ONESemester 131

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CONTENTS

3. Chair’s Report 4. Tax Evasion5. Creating Shared Value 6. Information & the Web - Friend or Foe?8. Titans of Industry Photographs10. 2012 in Review - Company Rankings11. Currency Wars12. “Dear Valued Shareholder” & A BIG Crossword13. A Student’s Guide to Investing15. Deal_Space & @Close

CHAIR’S REPORTJENNA WONG

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WELCOME

Welcome back to another semester of Bond and our first edition of GSR for 2013. Firstly, I would like to introduce myself as the new Chair of BIG. The nature of University life is that eventually, we all graduate, or at least

that’s the plan. So although it is a daunting task attempting to take over the reigns from James Graham, I am excited to see the group continue to evolve this year.

THE TEAM

I would like to introduce this semesters team:

Deputy Chair (Events): Archibald Marr

Deputy Chair (Media): Bianca Gorgoglione

Deputy Chair (Special Interests)

Secretary: Helena Michael

Treasurer: Brent Loeskow

Corporate Relations Director: Cecilia Cobb

Events/Competitions Director: Reinhold Schmidt

Social Media Director: Chawis Chamnarnkit

Publications Director: Jayde De Bondt

IT Director: Annabel Yee

A BIG YEAR

This year will see BIG continue to expand our horizons, with new competitions and events. We will be continuing our flagship event, Titans of Industry Forum insemester 133, and after the success of our first Women in Business Evening last year, we are excited to lock in our upcoming speaker for 132. As always, we will be updating you weekly in our email Week Just Gone, which will

provide summaries on the week in deals, markets, business commentary and career opportunities.

INTERNSHIP AND GRADUATE PANEL EVENING

If you’re not quite sure where you want to work, it’s time to start considering applying for internships. Internships are a great way to get to know the industries that you’re interested in and find out if the job is right for you. It will give you a taste of your future and a foot in the door.

However, for those of you entering their final year, it’s time to get thinking about graduate recruitment. Start researching your options, don’t just walk past the CDC thinking you should make an appointment - it’s time to be proactive and take charge of your future.

Lucky for you, BIG is also here to help! We will be hosting an internship panel first, which will give you handy tips on the application process, how to get through interviews and assessment centres. For those of you applying for jobs, our graduates who range from Big four accounting firms to Investment Banks will provide you with an insight into your potential career path. For more information. look out for our weekly emails, Facebook or posters.

Looking forward to another BIG year with you all (never gets old),

Jenna WongChair

TAX EVASIONARCHIBALD MARR

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Bermuda, where there is no corporate tax.

In the Governments eyes, improving the transparency of Australia’s business tax system will encourage enterprises to pay their fare share of tax and discourage aggressive tax minimisation practices – it will allow the public to better understand the business tax system and engage in debates about tax policy.

The crackdown isn’t simply Australia wide, there is strong sentiment against ‘tax dodgers’ throughout the world at the moment, with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron calling for a ‘global crusade’ against multi-national firms that use legal loopholes to avoid paying tax. Mr. Cameron will argue that the G8 must join forces to tackle tax evasion, and take bold steps to end economic uncertainty.

However, the crackdown won’t necessarily be as painless as our Government anticipates. There is a balance required between capturing a greater share of tax revenue, and the need to attract business into our country, which is already reputable as a highly taxed nation. Concerns about Australia’s reputation surrounded the Australian Taxation Office’s chase of tax dollars from offshore private equity firms, which was sparked by U.S. – based TPG Capital Management LP’s profit on the $2.4 billion public sale of retailer Myer Holdings.

‘What is starting to happen is that Australia is being increasingly seen as a high sovereign risk country on taxes’ said Paul Stacey, tax counsel at the institute of Chartered Accountants – and the review will only increase that perception.

Nevertheless, ‘whilst some investors will not be happy with tax changes in Australia, what may appeal to them is the economic climate of the country’ said Niv Tadmore, partner at Clayton Utz. Australia has been relatively unscathed by the recent global financial woes, and this is probably a reason for the governments brutality on the matter.

From all of this discussion, the only thing apparent is a need for balance. What’s apparently been neglected from the sentiment of the Australian Government is the need to work together with counterparts overseas on this reform. If this doesn’t happen, whilst our country will increase its tax revenue from a single transaction, that means another counterpart will receive less tax out of that transaction and global investment in our country may slow.

In the aftermath of a confident public commitment to bring Australia into a budget surplus, Wayne Swan and Federal Labor are looking at ways to build revenue, and one of their new targets are corporate giants whom it is alleged are not ‘paying their fare share’.

It’s not uncommon to see companies with operations stationed in countries along the lines of Mauritius, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with record-breaking profits and wins. Which is for the private sector, a win-win situation, but for the ever-needy public trust, it’s a serious problem.

Global Giants such as Apple and Google will be forced to reveal how much tax they pay the federal government, under a proposed plan to name and shame firms seen to be dodging their responsibility by using tax havens. The proposed crackdown, which Federal Labor hopes to pass through legislation before the September election will require large firms to publish more detailed information on how much tax they pay.

“Large multinational companies that use complex arrangements and contrived corporate structures to avoid paying their fair share of tax should not be able to hide behind a veil of secrecy,” the Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury, said.

Google accounts show Google paid $74,176 in Australian tax in 2011, though the company argued it paid more. The treasurer labelled Google’s tax structure as the ‘Double Irish Dutch Sandwich’ in which income is routed to Ireland, a royalty paid from the Irish unit to a Dutch subsidiary, and then repaid to a second Irish holding company controlled in

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CREATING SHARED VALUESARAH COBURN

In light of the recent global financial crisis, corporations have been blamed for ignoring problems of the environment, society and local economies. But what if these problems were opportunities? Opportunities not only to improve the world we live in, but to increase business performance.

Across all industries, there has been a significant shift over the past several decades away from philanthropy (donations of time and money) and ‘traditional’ corporate social responsibility (corporate citizenship and compliance with community standards), towards the more strategic concept of shared value (societal improvement integrated into economic value creation). Shared value was originally described by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in the Harvard Business Review article titled ‘Creating Shared Value: How to reinvent capitalism – and unleash a wave of innovation and growth’ which was recognised as the most influential article in 2011. Asserting that “capitalism is under siege,” the article urged business leaders to embrace a new concept of delivering value, and creating a profit, while delivering results that benefit society.

Porter and Kramer (2011) suggest three ways that companies can create shared value opportunities: reconceiving products and markets, redefining productivity in the value chain and enabling local cluster development.

Creating Shared Value in Australia

On Wednesday 14 November in Melbourne, the Creating Shared Value Forum was led by Mark Kramer, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and co-author of the shared value concept. The forum brought together world leading experts with senior Australian business executives and community leaders to discuss strategies for managing and implementing shared value principles in their organisations. We heard from a number of executives as to how their organisations have embraced the idea of shared value into their operations.

Take Nestlé as an example, one of the first major companies to embrace the idea of shared value into its operations.

Martin Brown, General Manager of Nestlé Australia and New Zealand explained Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan which aims to enable farmers to run profitable farms, eliminating child labour, while ensuring a sustainable supply chain for Nestlé cocoa. Nestle has developed higher quality seedlings and provided advice on farming practices enabling greater yield and therefore greater profits to the farmers and Nestle. Through this initiative, Nestlé has been able to create new economic value by creating greater productivity in its value chain.

IBM Australia has partnered with leading foundations, public organisations and academic institutions to form the World Community Grid which uses idle computer time to power societal research. The World Community Grid harnesses unused idle time of computers from over 1.5 million individual PCs from around the world to run complex computations for research. As Sara Watts, CFO of IBM Australia and New Zealand explained, the grid accelerates the pace of research by performing computations that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of computer infrastructure required.

Creating shared value is a significant shift in the way we have previously thought about philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. These initiatives are not driven by philanthropy, but rather, by the understanding that contributing to society and the environment can have significant economic benefit to business. It’s about increasing the size of the pie, rather than dividing it differently.

\INFORMATION & THE WEB - FRIEND OR FOE?CHAWIS CHAMNARNKIT

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Information, Information, Information. It’s everywhere. Without a doubt, IT is continually becoming one of the most important aspects of everyday business, particularly within major corporations where everything has to be real time. Think of the stock exchange that never shuts, emails that are being relayed 24/7, or executives passing on the work from one country to another, around the world. All this was not done efficiently decades ago, but at this stage, many would say that we are getting closer to the peak in the use of IT in the Business world.

But the question remains, is it a ‘friend’, making life much more simple for everyone? Or does it carry a much darker side to it? To answer this question, we will look at the impact of IT in terms of what it could have done in the past, and what it is doing now.

Think of Enron, a company that went from being America’s eighth largest corporation to bankruptcy in less than a month. This was the price the company paid as a result of a major mistake by the executives of the corporation who used accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting, hiding over billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Due to this power of information asymmetry, shareholders and investors were convinced that the company was in a strong financial position. As such, they continued investing in the company thinking that a major payoff would be due, but they were wrong, as Enron went from a high stock price of $90 in mid 2000 to less than $1 in November 2001.This case ended a decade ago, and since then, more transparent accounting practices have been developed. This includes the legislation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which many say, is the direct result of the collapse of Enron. Also, with the growth in technology, the general public will find it much easier to see news updates on their investments, check shares in the stock market, or even easily do a quick Google search to look up and obtain a full financial information report of several major corporations.

This transparency of information in the business environment is also made accessible for someone who is not even thinking about going into the market . For example, by simply swiping the top of your iPhone screen downwards, you can obtain real-time stock prices, as well as the market capitalization values of major corporations such as Google, Yahoo, or Telstra. This was never possible less than a decade ago, another big

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Gonzalez and his accomplices in America and Russia staged the biggest data thefts in history, managing to steal credit and debit card magnet strip data for sale on the black market. With the use of Wifi Hacking and SQL Injection, the group managed to steal credit card information from companies like 7-Eleven, Office Max, and TJX. This operation took place for over three years starting in 2005.More recently on February 1st , many of us would have heard about the news that over 250,000 twitter accounts have been compromised. Twitter Information Security Director Bob Lord said about 250,000 users’ username, password, emails and other data have been stolen, and if users have a premium account of any sort, this also includes credit card and other payment details. This took very shortly after the computer systems of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were infiltrated.

Last year alone, Cyber attacks on Australia cost the economy more than $1.65 billion. In an effort to combat such crimes, The Australian Cyber Security Centre will open in Canberra by late 2013. Seeing that about 73% of Australians use the Internet more than once a day, this generates over $50 billion for the economy. This value of the cyberspace is huge.

So, at a broad level, many business operators are grateful of the technology that exists. However, its only when they fall victims of the crime that they realize the dark side to it. Although it is true that more benefits are presented with the growth in technology, it is important to realize that with the technological expansion, cyber criminals also benefit from it as they will be able to improve and increase their volume of attacks. It’s basically a catch up game…a never ending catch up game.

milestone achieved for the business world.However, on the darker side of things, the growth in IT also presents several problems that causes major losses.

These problems are generally very difficult to deal with as they are well organized and difficult to track. Cybercrime can cause a loss on an extremely large scale. For example, the list below shows the 3 worst cybercrimes from the past decade:

1. Money MulesTook place in 2009, an innovation from the former Soviet empire were the so-called “money mule” scams. By using specialized Trojan horses like Zeus and URLZone, the this form of computer sabotage targeted small businesses that use online banking, stealing the victim’s credentials and initiating wire transfers from their accounts, usually totaling tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was considered as the perfect crime. One of the FBI officials says it has racked up $100 million in thefts, and counting.

2. ConfickerTaking place in 2009 Packing state-of-the-art encryption, and sophisticated peer-to-peer update mechanism, Conficker tantalized security researchers and resisted attempts at eradication, inhabiting at its peak as many as 15 million unpatched Windows boxes, mostly in China and Brazil. Acting like an anti virus software, users download it for the price of $49.95

3. Albert GonzalezHe called it the “Get rich or die tryin” operation, Albert

TITANS OF INDUSTRY FORUM

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Photographers: STUART MCKELVIE & JONA VILLANUEVA

2012 IN REVIEW - COMPANY RANKINGSBRENT LOESKOW

2012 delivered us a year of many things. We saw Queensland take out State of Origin for the seventh year in a row, the liberals elected back into State Government and Thrift Shop take out the number one song on the hottest 100. But what companies really stood out for the right and the wrong reasons in the business world? Here are just a few rankings of 2012 which suggest just how good or bad companies performed.

THE AFR’S MOST RESPECTED COMPANIESThe AFR surveyed a total of 170 participants in senior executive positions who each voted for the companies that they respected most in 2012. These companies earned the respect of other CEO’s from their innovation, their efficiency, and their ability to deal with difficult situations. The five most respected Australian companies in 2012 were:

1. Apple Australia2. Wesfarmers3. Virgin Australia4. Qantas5. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia

THE FORTUNE 10Meanwhile in America, companies are pulling in more revenue than ever before. Exxon Mobil made US$452 billion in revenue and converted this into over US$41 billion in profits. To put this into perspective, this is over ten times what Rio Tinto makes. The ten companies which turned over the most revenue were:

THE BEST EMPLOYERSNeed a job soon? Aon Hewitt released a list of the best employers to work for in Australia and New Zealand by focussing on; commitment from senior leaders, clear performance expectations and reward and recognition practices. Microsoft came in at number one but there were a few surprises thrown in amongst the top five. The top five were:

1. Microsoft2. FedEx Express3. Starlight’s Children’s Foundation4. Trilby Misso Lawyers5. SEEK Limited

THE BEST AND WORST BRAND NAMESProductReview.com.au has collated local data to ascertain the best and worst brand performers operating in the Australian market.

Data collated and released from one of Australia’s largest consumer review websites has revealed which brands are performing highly (or otherwise) in the eyes of the public. The figures, based on more than 65,000 reviews, are broken into three categories across brands, shops and services.

Top Rated1. Apple – 4.33 stars2. Steelcraft – 4.02 stars3. Dyson – 3.95 stars4. DéLonghi – 3.89 stars5. Breville – 3.68 stars

Bottom Rated1. Dodo – 1.61 stars2. Nestlé – 1.72 stars3. Simpson – 2.05 stars4. Whirlpool – 2.39 stars5. Australia Post – 2.55 stars

*http://www.aon.com.au/australia/press-releases/press-release-aon-hewitt-announces-best-employers-for-2012-4-jun-2012.jsp

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CURRENCY WARSANNABEL YEE

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“Devaluing a currency,” one senior Federal Reserve official once told The Wall Street Journal’s Money and Investing Editor Francesco Guerrera, “is like peeing in bed. It feels good at first, but pretty soon it becomes a real mess.”

This act of competitive devaluation is a determination made by countries and central banks to compete against each other in order to achieve a relatively low exchange rate for their own currency. With low exchange rates, relative values of other currencies increase. This means exports become cheaper in foreign companies and will be boosted and thus, their economy strengthened. Also, with a weakened currency, you can borrow big dollars and pay your loan back with cheap ones.

Currency wars get messy in that the ‘each-country-for-itself’ mentality and aggressive strategies have a global effect. It can easily cause imbalances to the global currency system, hurt other countries’ economic competitiveness and cripple the global economic landscape.

The currency war that is on the brink of outburst or, as some argue, we are in the midst of, may last a little longer than the minor currency war in 2010. Some countries’ actions in the recent past indicate they are participating in a currency war, such as Japan.

JAPAN AT WARJapan has adopted an aggressive strategy to put a hold on the yen’s strength. Since Shinzo Abe was selected to be Japan’s prime minister in late 2012, for a second time, the yen has weakened significantly. His calls for action by Bank of Japan (BOJ) have raised alarms as other central banks adopt similar aggressive policies and loose monetary policies.

Last month, the BOJ made an open-ended commitment to buying assets from 2013 and agreed to double its inflation

target to 2 percent. These measures are intended to pull Japan’s economy out of years of deflation and its fourth recession since 2000.

Ultra-low interest rates and increasing money-printing are also strategies put in place an in attempt to actuate the economy and put downward pressure on the currency.Since the end of November, the yen has lost more than 10 per cent against the US dollar and approximately 15 percent against the euro.Japan will most likely have to defend its policies and actions at the G20 meeting on Feb. 15-16, 2013, to stem international criticism of its strategy to revive the country’s economic prosperity.

MARKET EFFECTSForeign exchange (forex) price action may be affected significantly if the currency war worsens. Rather

than fundamentals or risk sentiment dictating forex prices, central bank intervention and inference may become the primary factor. The somewhat unresponsive EUR/CHF pair in 2012 is an extreme case of what could occur as a result of the currency war. The Swiss National Bank strongly defended the EUR/CHF peg and thus, became indifferent to euro zone debt crisis updates. This affect on market volatility could flow on to lowering trading volumes in the retail-trading sector.

ARE WE NEXT? Adam Posen, a former Bank of England member and currently the President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, predicts that Australia may be next to actively interfere in our markets to battle our strengthening dollar.

If we have anything to learn from history, it is that a currency war and the ‘each-country-for-itself’ mindset paves the way to unpredictable exchange rates and weaker international trade, as per the 1930s currency war. If we’re not careful, history may just repeat itself.

“DEAR VALUED SHAREHOLDER”REINHOLD SCHMIDT

WHAT THE FINANCE?A BIG Crossword

Across2. A liquidity ration that measures the rela-tionship between current assets and current liabilities

3. In 2009 we all bought a new flat screen thanks to Kevin ‘07’s ________ package.

4. An indicator that reacts slowly to econom-ic changes and therefore has little predictive value.

10. The ______ facilitates and controls the buying and selling of shares in listed Aus-tralian companies.

11. Brokers trading on Wall Street deal with shares listed on this stock exchange.

Down1. Inflation on steroids.

2. Gross profit - sales = ________ (Hint: incu-des materials and labour of products sold)

5. You buy a restaurant for more than the value of it’s net tangible assets because of the _______ (Hint: why is the restaurant so busy?)

6. A company s considered highly _________ when it has as much debt as equity.

7. The US stock exchange traditionally for the “high-tech market”.

8. The ________ index gauges the perfor-mance of almost all ordinary shares listed on the ASX (around 95% of Australian listed share capitalization).

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The dream of striking it big in the gold mines is just as likely when playing with the stock market. The Australian Stock Market has seen some great growth in the last few months. There have been numerous ups and downs. As a new comer to the ASX, I have invested a small amount into a wide array of companies across many sectors. This has made me privy to a few market reactions and has given me some insight as to how the market ticks.

I woke up early, so I could see the reports as soon as they came out, checking the prices every second of the day, watching a 2% profit turn into a -2% loss in two days, then to return back to square one. This seemingly pointless cycle only seemed to turn around when a friend told me to leave it alone for a week. Then when the itch returned to my surprise, nothing had happened.

Now, as the “Dear Valued Shareholder” letters began coming in, I realised that whilst in this recovering market where the outlook is rather bullish, it is rather

unlikely for these calibre stocks to severally decrease; however it is equally as unlikely for them to pay for my degree at Bond. This constant observation of the market helped me to picture links about real world events and their corresponding effects on the market. One thing I have noted, is when retail sales begin, the price of retailers go up, and funnily enough when the overall reaction of the market is negative, the price of wine shares rise.

I have learnt a couple of things from my little experience thus far. Firstly, the share market is a interesting and flippant place. It changes frequently and sometimes unexpectedly. Secondly, company research is essential: it is important to understand the company inside and out, and to make you see each share as a part of a larger organisation that actually conducts business. Lastly, I learnt my most vital lesson: an investor must not get emotionally attached to any company or stock; don’t hold onto a company just because you like them, that is an easy way to lose you money.

Without understanding a company and merely following trends, you may as well take you money and stick it on red at Jupiter’s.

The market is a very fragile place, you must take into consideration everything that is happening in the world. If there is a natural disaster, what will it do , if there is an election, what does that mean for Australian shares? Knowing this, I will continue to find advice.

Any average Joe nowadays can get a Commsec account, a ANZ Etrade platform, as well as access to Forex platforms left right and centre. Now is the stock market a worthwhile endeavour for the average person? In my opinion, most likely no. Unless you have access to funds that you wouldn’t miss if they evaporated into thin air (a very nice problem to have), the ASX, let alone any other market is probably not the right place for you to let your money sit, despite what you here from Ross Greenwood on the Today Show each morning.

A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO INVESTINGHELENA MICHAEL

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Investing in the share market to many students can seem far too daunting. However, financial experts have reiterated that the earlier you start, the better off you will be. Particularly for the share market where more often than not, “time, not timing, is the friend of the investor”.

WHY INVEST? Investing your money is imperative to achieving your financial goals in the future. This could mean buying your dream car, a house, paying off a loan or travelling the world. Unless you already have the funds to do all of these things, it’s important you consider how much you’re going to need.

HOW TO INVEST? This is where you need to look at your current financial position and analyse how much risk you are willing to take. When looking at your financial position you need to take into account money that is coming in and out in the present and future including: food, rent, tax, insurance, school fees etc. How much risk you are willing to take will depend on what phase of your life you are in. If you are young, you can afford to take more risk than an older person because you can hold your investment for a longer period of time.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY Diversify! Diversify! Diversify! As the classic saying goes “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. The share market moves in cycles, so by investing your money in a variety of sectors will allow you to spread your risk. This means that if one of your shares is performing poorly, this could be balanced by another share that is doing well. Main Investment Areas In Australia we have four different investment areas, which one you invest in will depend on what your personal objectives are. These areas are cash (i.e. banks, building societies), fixed interest (i.e. bonds), property and shares. For a student, investing in the share market is highly recommended because as a long-term investment it can provide strong returns. It is recommended that when buying shares, they should be held for at least 3-7 years to make the most of your investment.

So where do you start and how much do you need? Knowledge is power, so its best to do your research before you decide to jump onto the bandwagon. If you’re looking

at investing in shares then the ASX’s website is extremely informative with detailed tutorials on getting started in the share market. With as little as $1000 you can begin investing in the share market, however, if you want to build a share portfolio you might need a bit more.

Another important thing to note when investing in the share market is that you’re going to need a broker. There are two types, full service advice broker and a discount broker. A full service advice broker can charge around $100 per trade and will provide advice on what you should invest in given your needs and objectives. A discount broker however, may only cost around $35 per trade but will purely buy or sell a share on your behalf. Depending on how much research you have done, a full service broker might be your best option if it’s your first time investing in the share market. Happy investing!

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What an exciting week in the realm of merges, acquisitions and, of course, speculation! Firstly, Buffett wants beans! Heinz, premium baked beans that is. Warren Buffet has teamed up with private equity firm 3G and made a $US 23 Billion offer for the baked beans and “Ketchup” giant Heinz. The largest ever acquisition of a food manufacturer has been unanimously approved by the Board and will result in shareholders receiving a 20% premium to Wednesday’s close. Why does Buffett want Heinz I hear you ask? Well, in a statement made by the man himself, ““Heinz has strong, sustainable growth potential based on high-quality standards, continuous innovation, excellent management and great-tasting products.” As well as great taste, long-term demand of the Asian and far east markets is also likely to be a standout consideration. There is no doubt that this week’s top merge is that of American Airlines parent AMR and US Airways. Valued at around $ 11 Billion, the companies will form the world’s largest airline and boasts that the deal will result in total annual saving of more than $US1 Billion. AMR is currently in bankruptcy protection. If the merger is approved by the judge overseeing the airline’s restructure, the deal may result in full repayment of AMR’s creditors and the company’s lawyer suggests existing shareholders could see substantial financial recoveries (estimated between $US350 million and $US400 million), an extremely fortunate outcome

in the circumstances. Here at home, GrainCorp’s board is showing no signs of handing over the reigns to Us commodities giant Archer Daniel Midland (ADM). In December, Graincorp rejected ADM’s second takeover bid of $2.8 Billion. Although there is speculation that ADM will put in a higher offer, CEO Patricia Woertz confirmed this week that there has been no further conversation with GrainCorp. Established in 1916, GrainCorp is Australia’s largest listed agricultural company and ADM are keen to snap it up to help them wriggle into the Asain market. Watch this space to see what happens. Saving perhaps the most interesting for last, CITIC Group purchased a 13% stake in Australia’s Alumina Ltd. CITIC, a Chinese state-owned company, has a long history in the resources sector and is renowned for making long term investments. Although unanticipated for Alumina shareholders, the purchase is really no surprise considering the merging Chinese economy’s growing dependence on alumina imports. Commentators expect CITIC to increase it’s interest to 15%.

Can’t wait for our next newsletter and want to keep yourself updated daily? Head to the business section of The Aussie - free copy available in the library to read at your leisure!

The Australian stock market closed the week flat after news the Eurozone recession deepened in the final three months of last year.At the 1615 AEDT official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index slipped 0.06 per cent at 5,033.9 points, and the broader All Ordinaries index lost 0.05 per cent to 5,054.6 points.

Asian stocks opened lower following drops on European markets after a bigger-than-expected contraction for the Eurozone economy.In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.55 per cent to 23,285.61 points.

The Australian bond market is stronger as the deepening Eurozone recession prompts investors to move into the safe haven assets.At 0830 AEDT, the March 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 96.480 (implying a yield of 3.520 per cent), up from 96.430 (3.570 per cent)

Sources:

Bloomberg.comBusinessspectator.com.au

Smh.com.auFinnewsnetwork.com.au

Etrade.com.auComsec.com.au

“In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfil your potential...it’s no different in the financial realm,”

Suze Orman.

To contribute to GSR, please email Editor, Jayde de Bondt at:

jayde.debondt@student.bond.edu.au