Sydney, Sept 28, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Lend Lease has announced it's formally entered into a joint venture agreement with Grosvenor Group to acquire a 50 per cent interest in a development opportunity in the UK. The scheme, which has a gross development value of around $1.6 billion, extends to approximately 28 acres and consists of about one-point-one million square feet of retail, catering, leisure and commercial, with about 400,000 square feet of residential space. Grosvenor has already completed a Development Agreement with the Local Authority. Construction is expected to start in 2010, with completion forecast in 2013. Lend Lease has reported profits over the past four years after being in the red in 2003.

New Zealand casino operator Sky City Entertainment says an unnamed buyer is to begin due diligence on the company, sending its shares higher. The news has seen shares in Sky City, which has a virtual monopoly in New Zealand, open up four per cent. The board says the company considers the approach to be credible and genuine. Sky City however hasn't ruled out other approaches and plans to actively talk to other parties to gauge their interest. In Australia, competitors include Tabcorp, Tattersalls and PBL. But both Tattersalls and Tabcorp say they're not the interested party, while local media says the approach has come from a private equity bidder. Sky City's profit's in 2007 were slightly down in comparison to the company's 2006 result.

Macquarie Bank and AMP Capital Investors have been beaten in their bid to buy Australia largest collection of health care assets. Today's Financial Review reports British health fund BUPA is set to buy Amity and New Zealand's Guardian Healthcare from private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific. While the final sale price hasn't been revealed, negotiations had been priced at about $1.2 billion. Macquarie Bank's profits have increased steadily since 2003.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/G91QE6UX


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/4B70DY85



Source: Finance News Network © 2007 http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au

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