Mark Pownall

TERRY Budge has already passed the halfway mark in his seven-year contract as the head of BankWest, outliving the average Australian chief executive’s tenure in the process.

SOUTH Australian winemaker Normans Wines is likely target of a $200 million plus acquisition drive by three Margaret River wineries.

BARELY a year has gone since Tony Barton stormed back into WA’s investment scene with his new company’s purchase of a half share in stockbroker DJ Carmichael & Co.

ALL of us have at some time or another felt that we live in a State that rivals paradise, here in WA. Interestingly it is not just us who feel that way.

THE biggest story in Australia’s corporate history occurred this week with the announced merger of Australian mining giant BHP with London’s Billiton plc.

MEGA mergers like that proposed between Australia’s BHP and South African-based Billiton are real food for thought.

MASS consumption of fast food is a New World phenomenon.People in traditional societies - such as Europe - tended to eat at a more leisurely pace.

A WA wine industry proposal to exempt producers’ first 1 million litres from the wine equalisation tax has been adopted at a national level as the producers prepare to use their electoral clout to wind back GST-driven exise increases.

LESS than a third of WA’s listed companies produced a return considered adequate during 2000, with most of them failing to beat the All Ordinaries Index and prob-ably leaving investors wondering why they didn’t leave their money in the bank.