Australian Markets

Oz Minerals (OZM) has released information that it expects gold production to increase over the period to 2012 while production costs expected to fall due to increased production. The company's shares jumped almost 4 percent on the announcement by Terry Burgess, the Chief Executive of OZM.

The company expects gold production to rise from previous guidance of between 80,000-90,000 ounces to 110,000-120,000 ounces a year. Copper guidance over the same period was unchanged at 100,000-110,000 tonnes a year.

Key large shareholders in Seven Network (SEV) have agreed to back the controversial merger between the Australian TV broadcaster and the heavy equipment company, Westrac.

Kerry Stokes, who holds a controling stake int he two companies has agreed to protect Seven shareholders by cancelling part of the share payment to his holding company Australian Capital Equity Pty Ltd (ACE) if Westrac fails to meet its earnings forecast for the 2011 financial year.

Arrow Energy (AOE) and Apollo Gas (AZO) have found a new potential gas resource in Newcastle, New South Wales. The resource is help in a partnership between the two companies.

Mirvac (MGR) has raised $350 million in their institutional capital raising. The raising has been oversubscribed with 250 million shares placed at $1.40 each. The extra capital increases liquidity to $1.4 billion and increases cash on hand to $400.3 million.

iiNet (IIN), an Australian internet service provider, has agreed to acquire a rival ISP for $40 million. The acquisition will be 100% debt funded. The condition of the purchase will include an expected completion by 30 April 2010 with existing owners to exit.

Solomon Lew's Premier Investments (PMV, yesterday, reported a 13.7 percent fall in first-half profit to $42.44 million for the 27 weeks to January 30 as company revenue rose 6.3 per cent to $483.99 million.

OZ Minerals (OZL) sold most of their mining assets to China's state owned Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. last year at US$1.35 billion. The Australian subsidiary of Minmetals, MMG (Minerals and Metals Group) announced that the company earned a net profit of US$180 million in 2009.

Liberty Global, a US media cable giant which controls regional pay-TV company Austar (AUN), has said that is it interested in acquiring a stake in rival Australian cable TV operator Foxtel.

Chinalco and Rio Tinto (RIO) have become joint venture partners for the development of the Simandou iron ore field in west Africa worth US$12 billion. This comes after the failed merger between the two companies last year. Rio Tinto and Chinalco have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding and are now working on a binding agreement which may take up to three months.

The collapse of the planned merger of Rio Tinto (RIO) and Chinalco worth up to $19.5 billion on June 5 2009, has been accepted by the Chinese government as a failure that was beyond their control. The report to the State Council exonerates the resources company and the Australian government and accepts that ordinary economic forces halted the largest Chinese foreign investment deal.