Sydney, Sept 4, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The race to build a multi million dollar high speed broadband network in Australia has stepped up with Europe's biggest telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom confirming it wants to bid as part of a consortium. The telco has joined competitors Telstra and the Optus-led G9 consortium in criticising aspects of the Federal Government's framework for the bidding process. The government taskforce charged with selecting a bidder has only several weeks to consider submissions on its draft guidelines before they are made final later this month. After that, bidders will have only 17 weeks to lodge proposals. Telstra's profits are up this year but are still down on 2005.

Sugar producer and building products group CSR has projected group earnings for fiscal 2008 to be lower than in the previous year. CSR says its earnings before interest and tax were likely to be 5 percent down on the previous year, before one-offs, hurt by lower sugar prices. The company says overall sugar earnings before interest and tax was also expected to be down between 40 to 45 per cent. Net profit after tax would also be affected by increased interest costs following the recent acquisition of the Pilkington glass business. CSR's profits have fallen slightly since 2005.

Challenger financial Services has swooped on three of the country's top five mortgage aggregators. Challenger, which also advances mortgages of its own, says it's bought 100 per cent of the country's third-largest aggregator, Choice Aggregation Services, for $163m. The company says the acquisition was expected to contribute to growth in earnings per share within 12 months. Challenger also says it intends to buy the 85 per cent it didn't yet own in PLAN, the nation's largest aggregator, and had already bought 19 per cent of FAST, the nation's fourth-largest. Challenger's profits have been posting net profits since a loss in 2004.

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

Video Link

http://acnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/71346G2L


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/80Z76OQC



Source: Finance News Network © 2007 http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au
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>>> CHALLENGER FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP LIMITED
>>> CSR LIMITED
>>> TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED.