Sydney, Sept 3, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian construction firm Leighton Holdings has struck a deal to make one of the country's biggest investments in the Gulf. The company says it will pay about $870M for a 45 per cent stake in one of the Middle East's biggest engineering firms, Al Habtoor Engineering. Leighton says the deal, funded by cash and debt, would be accretive to earnings per share for this business year. Leighton Holdings profits have been steadily increasing since 2004.

Australia's Primary Health Care is in advanced talks with private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners over a $3.5bil bid for Symbion Health. According to today's Australian Financial Review the deal is funded by Credit Suisse and National Australia Bank. The paper says that Primary and PEP will form a joint venture to acquire all of Symbion, which has already accepted a $2.9bil offer from Healthscope. The deal would create Australia's biggest medical testing provider and second-biggest private hospital operator. Since 2005 Primary Heathcare's profits have grown by about 10 million dollars a year.

A former divisional head at ANZ bank, who missed out on the top job, is suing the company for millions of dollars in damages. Steve Targett alleges that misleading and deceptive conduct by ANZ cost him a lucrative career at his previous employer, Lloyds Bank TSB, and the opportunity to lead a bank. ANZ included the 52-year-old on its shortlist to succeed chief executive John McFarlane, but terminated his employment on June 6, six days before announcing that HSBC executive Mike Smith would take the top job from October. ANZ bank posted a record profit in 2006.

The full report is available at the following video and audio links.

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/K0PE36RX


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/X7IP5U7F



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