Aust Business Headlines, (ASX: SHL), (ASX: NAB), (ASX: QAN)

Sydney, July 6, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Sonic Healthcare says it's agreed to buy New York-based Sunrise Medical Laboratories. Sonic managing director Colin Goldschmidt says the acquisition of Sunrise represents an important strategic step for Sonic Healthcare in its expanding U.S. operations. The deal is said to be worth almost 170 million U.S. dollars and will immediately boost Sonic's earnings per share. The deal is expected to be finalized in early August. Sonic Health Care's earnings have been increasing over the last 4 financial years.

Sky News is reporting that the National Australia Bank has done its best to hush rumours of a possible acquisition in the U.K. It comes as the Financial Review reported the bank's U.K chief, Lynne Peacock, as saying there's no reason why its current business model couldn't be rolled out across Europe. At the same time Ms Peacock was very quick to point out that there were no such plans currently in place. Recent reports have said the bank would need to make an acquisition to keep up with its competition. National Australia Bank produced record earnings in 2006.

And Qantas has eased concerns about its foreign ownership by confirming that it is complying with the Qantas Sale Act. The latest figures to be released show 44.5 per cent of the airline is owned by foreign investors. That's down from just under 50 per cent in May. Laws prevent foreign ownership to rise above the 50 per cent mark. The news comes just days after the carrier revealed it had seen a 7 per cent rise in the number of people flying with Qantas-owned airlines over the past 11 months. Qantas Airways experienced its earnings highlight in 2005

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