PRESS DIGEST-Australian Business News - April 22

Compiled for Reuters by Media Monitors. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW (www.afr.com)

-- BrisConnections investors with less than 50,000 units in the toll-road operator will be able to offload their holdings, and the liabilities associated with them, after investment bank Macquarie Group (MQG.AX) yesterday offered to buy them. News of the offer came as major shareholder Nicholas Bolton exercised a put option on his 77.4 million units which Mr Bolton hopes will relieve him of the A$155 million owed on the units. The Victorian Supreme Court has previously described the put option as a "sham". Page 47.

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Poker machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure (ALL.AX) yesterday announced plans to raise up to A$275 million. The company said it would raise A$200 million through an institutional placement of shares at A$3.25 each, a discount to the company's last trading price of A$3.98, with the remaining A$75 million to be raised through a share purchase plan. Executive chairman David Simpson said the sector was undergoing a general recapitalisation "and we are part of that." Page 47.

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Recruitment company Talent2 International yesterday said the weak employment outlook was continuing to put pressure on the recruiter, with the company recording a loss for the three months to the end of March. Managing director Andrew Banks also warned that "further deterioration in operating conditions and performance" in Hong Kong and Britain are likely to lead to further write-downs. Analysts say the entire recruitment sector has been affected by dramatic falls in permanent placement activity. Page 47.

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Ian McLeod, the managing director of grocery chain Coles Group (WES.AX), says the retailer has been examining instances where multinational suppliers are making higher profit margins in Australia than in other countries. Mr McLeod said that although Coles was speaking to suppliers about pricing in these cases, "I disagree with the point we're taking a combative approach to suppliers." Coles yesterday announced sales figures for the March quarter, which were up 6 percent on a comparable-store basis. Page 48.

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THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

-- Mining company Ivanhoe Australia (IVA.AX) yesterday announced that its Merlin Project in Queensland contains around A$6.4 billion of molybdenum and rhenium at current spot metal prices. Chief executive Peter Reeve said the project could make Ivanhoe "the world's dominant and most reliable supplier of rhenium and position the company as a major molybdenum producer." Shares in the company soared following the announcement, closing 29.66 percent higher at A$1.88 a share. Page 21.

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Troubled clothing and footwear manufacturer Pacific Brands (PBG.AX) yesterday announced that it has received an extension from lenders on required debt payments. Repayment of the first of three tranches of debt has been extended from August 2010 to January 2011, with the second tranche repayment date also extended. Chief executive Sue Morphett said "the revised deal has been fully supported by our existing banking group." The company currently has debt facilities of A$1.05 billion. Page 23.

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Investment company Babcock & Brown Capital (BCM) BCM.AX yesterday announced that it will pay out A$135 million of the firm's A$175 million of cash to investors if it does not receive a firm bid by the end of June. The company's board said any bid would need to include a premium for its ownership of Irish telecommunications company Eircom. The move by BCM partly blocks a proposal from the Taemas Bridge fund which would see all of BCM's A$175 million in capital returned to shareholders and the company delisted. Page 23.