PRESS DIGEST-Australian Business News - Aug 18

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)

-- AWB (AWB.AX) chief executive Gordon Davis has called on shareholders to support the dismantling of the wheat marketer's dual-class shareholder structure at a vote on Thursday. Mr Davis said the move would help the company compete in the deregulated wheat export market, and would help AWB raise fresh equity capital. The proposal was narrowly defeated at a vote in February, but Mr Davis said he was confident that those who rejected the scheme then would vote for it on Thursday. AWB requires 75 percent support for the proposal to succeed. Page 16. --Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) , Wesfarmers (WES.AX) and Fairfax Media (FXJ.AX) are among those to announce profit results this week, but the slowing international economy is expected to produce some mixed offerings. Colonial First State's Hans Kunnen said most industrial companies would not be able to escape the slowing economy, and that their respective outlooks would suffer. 'There'll be some growth; it will be slow and it will be hard,' he said. He added that the near-30 percent decline in the Australian sharemarket meant investors had already priced in a recession. Page 16. --Diversified miner BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) is expected to confirm a record annual profit of $A18.1 billion when it unveils its results in London today. Underpinned by record prices for petroleum, manganese ore, copper and iron ore, the figure would represent a rise of 14.8 percent on the previous year. The announcement is expected to please investors and analysts, but Global Mining Investments chairman John Robinson suggested more focus would be placed on BHP's outlook because of concern that Chinese demand for commodities may be slowing. Page 16. -- Victorian co-operative Murray Goulburn has moved on from the collapse of a joint venture deal with Italian group Parmalat (PLT.MI) and made a stand-alone bid for Dairy Farmers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has begun a review of the bid, under which Murray Goulburn proposes to acquire 100 percent of Dairy Farmers' cheese and ingredients business and buy shares equivalent to at least 20 percent of the total shares on Dairy Farmers' register. It also intends to retain the Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative entity. Page 17. THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

-- The Australian Shareholders Association (ASA) says St George Bank's SGB.AX stronger than expected operational update and strong shareprice warrant a higher offer from takeover aspirant Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX). 'It's likely that St George shareholders will expect more from the merger than they did three months ago,' said ASA chief executive Stuart Wilson. He said some St George shareholders were saying 'the goal posts have moved somewhat and they would be more inclined to accept a better deal' than Westpac's A$20 billion offer. Page 35. --Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) could make a bid of up to A$7 billion for Perth-based lender BankWest. BankWest's Scottish owner, HBOS HBOS.L, has appointed investment bank Morgan Stanley to advise on future options for the fast-growing lender, which is expanding throughout Australia's eastern states. HBOS is also the owner of ABN Amro, the Australian operations of which CBA was until last week looking to acquire. Its sudden departure from the race has reportedly angered HBOS executives, but CBA said yesterday it acted appropriately. Page 35.

-- Economists have adjusted forecasts for the Australian dollar, which in recent weeks has lost all the gains made against the United States dollar this year. National Australia Bank has revised its 'fair value' modelling for the A$ to US85.8c from US87.8c; just three months ago, several economists predicted the A$ would soon reach parity with the greenback. At the end of trading in New York on Friday, the A$ closed at US86.22, a 12.2 percent fall from its July 15 high of US98.27. Further falls are expected today on concerns of falling commodity prices. Page 35.

-- Fortescue MetalS Group (FMG.AX) chief executive Andrew Forrest and Telstra (TLS.AX) chief executive Sol Trujillo will deliver presentations at next month's Merrill Lynch Australian Investment Conference in New York. Twenty-three companies are listed for presentations at the two-day event, including Macquarie Group, Santos and St George Bank, while Babcock & Brown, Ansell, AIG and Toll Holdings will participate in one-on-one meetings. The conference coincides with a number of corporate hospitality events at the United States Open tennis finals. Page 36.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (www.smh.com.au) -- Singapore-based Tiger Airways (SIAL.SI) is reported to have lost A$23 million since beginning domestic flights out of Melbourne last November. Tiger has declined to comment on the estimate, formulated by analysts studying previous company statements. 'We will be coming out with the…accounts when they are ready,' a Tiger spokesman said at the weekend. Last month, Tiger sought a three-month extension to file its full-year financial accounts because of a restructure it undertook during the year. Page 19. --Felix Resources (FLX.AX) has opened a data room to potential buyers, which include London-listed diversified miner Xstrata and Brazil's Vale. Xstrata Coal chief executive Peter Freyberg said Xstrata continued to be interested in acquisitions because of its ability to extract value from small, underperforming assets. 'We can integrate them and turn them around and we do,' he said. 'Where we've been involved in consolidation we have actually seen volumes increase; we've seen more efficiencies brought to mines.' Page 19. --Lower commodity prices are expected to push the Australian sharemarket lower today. Oil fell to its lowest price in three months on Friday, while gold fell to its lowest level since October. 'We still see the next few months as being quite rough,' said AMP's head of investment strategy, Shane Oliver. He also suggested investors would closely watch the release on Tuesday of the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's August board meeting, at which it all but confirmed than an interest rate cut would occur next month. Page 20. -- QBE Insurance Group (QBE.AX) will report its half-year results on Thursday, with industry observers predicting a net profit of about A$880 million. That figure would be 4 percent less than the previous corresponding period, but analysts said it would represent a strong performance given the recent credit crisis. Insurance Australia Group will report on Friday, with a net loss of A$254 million for the 12 months to June widely expected. Smaller rival Suncorp flagged two weeks ago that it would report an annual profit of between A$525 million and A$550 million. Page 21. THE AGE (www.theage.com.au) -- A group of Victorian research scientists is investigating ways of reducing methane emissions from cattle. Methane constitutes 10.8 percent of Australia's greenhouse gases, said Richard Eckard, who leads a team at the State Government's Ellinbank research institute. The team is focusing on dietary supplements - 'feeding the cattle to produce more milk profitably and reduce methane at the same time,' Dr Eckard said. Other methods of inquiry include the use of tannins in cattle feed to reduce methane emissions. Page B1. --A Gillespie Economics and Australian National University report has highlighted some of the billions of dollars worth of environmental benefits provided by Australia's farmers. Prepared for the Australian Farm Institute, the report said many of these benefits had not been recognised because of undue focus on negative issues such as reduced water availability and quality. Institute executive director Mick Keogh said farmers had made big management changes in recent years, including improved retention of natural vegetation and tree planting. Page B2. --Pharmaceutical group CSL's (CSL.AX) proposed A$3.5 billion acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics could be rejected by United States regulators on competition grounds. According to UBS calculations, the addition of Talecris give CSL a 48 percent share of the plasma products market. Baxter International, currently the market leader, has a market share of about 35 percent. CSL said the deal would allow it to generate US$225 million a year in savings over the next three years. Page B3. --Manufacturing unions and the Australian Industry Group have been urged to focus on common ground when they meet in Melbourne today. Today's forum will concentrate on skills, industry policy and environmental matters, but other issues on the agenda include the high Australian dollar, the increase in commodity prices, fuel prices and the impact of current and proposed free trade agreements. Unions present will include the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union and the National Union of Workers. Page B3.