Edward: Duke 'getting better'
The Duke of Edinburgh remains in hospital today after being admitted with a bladder infection on Monday. On Tuesday, his son Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, said the Duke was "getting better" after visiting him.
Source: www.itv.com
Divorce settlement causes pain - WA today
PROMOTERS of the billion-dollar divorce and property settlement proposal for Brickworks and Washington H. Soul Pattinson seem to have missed how finicky Tax Office chief Michael D'Ascenzo is about giving investors relief from capital gains tax.
Fund manager Perpetual's push to have the two investment groups, and their coalmining associate New Hope Corporation, undo their cross-shareholdings seems to have been running longer than the Survivor television series - with none of the players managing to find immunity from the ATO.
With a few billion dollars worth of assets potentially in play, the two sides have been trading shots over the past week on the back of a break-up plan devised by Charlie Green's Brisbane-based broking house Hunter Green.
Where Green thinks the tax effect on Brickworks would be minimal if it first raises some cash by flogging some of its 42.85 per cent holding in WHSP, and then distributing the rest to Brickworks shareholders on a pro rata basis - Brickworks' advisers beg to differ.
Brickworks actually sent a letter to shareholders last week saying that work done by PricewaterhouseCoopers calculated that instead of the $46 million in tax that Green theorised would be payable, the accounting group had come up with a $277 million cost.
That figure is roughly the 30 per cent of capital gains tax payable by Brickworks on the difference (some would call it profit) between the current $13.18 market price of its WHSP shares and the $3 a share that they cost way back when.
A cautious and sensitive PwC (do not mention the costly Centro settlement) spent some time vetting the Brickworks taking of its name before allowing it to go public last week. Insider understands the whole of PwC's advice is unlikely to be made public.
Perpetual investment chief Matt Williams may, though, get a look at it as early as today because Insider hears that he is meeting with Brickworks and its advisers to see if they cannot find a way of unravelling the group cross-shareholdings to mutual benefit.
Already this week those in the Perpetual camp have been arguing that for Brickworks to distribute its WHSP shares would be like Amcom Telecommunications' pro rata distribution to its shareholders last year of its 20 per cent stake in internet provider iiNet, where it did not trigger a capital gains tax (CGT) event.
Insider understands, though, that the problem with the argument is that the ATO only grants relief from CGT when the entity distributing the shares is deemed to control them.
In this case the feeling is that WHSP's cross-holding of 44.48 per cent in Brickworks would have the ATO shaking its head and treating the handing over of the stock as a ''sale''.
If that is right, Brickworks would be up for a tax bill that far exceeds the cash it has, quite probably triggering the sale of more assets and discomforting its bankers.
Buying back one another's shareholdings would seem to create worse problems, in Insider's view, with Brickworks needing $680 million to do that and WHSP $1.3 billion. While Brickworks' cost is wiped out by virtue of the cash it would get from WHSP, assuming the deals were done simultaneously, the latter would be $680 million out of pocket. And even though WHSP's balance sheet suggests that it has $1.6 billion in cash on deposit, that is really New Hope's money that it has been saving for a rainy day - or developing its coal assets.
Robert Millner, who chairs all three companies, almost had a solution when he put New Hope on the market last year - but had to kill off the sale in February without a bid on the table.
Had someone bought out New Hope at the mooted $6 billion asking price, then 60 per cent of that money - or $3.6 billion - would have flowed to WHSP (of which Brickworks' share would have been about $1.5 billion) and everybody would have been happier, most likely including the Tax Office.
That, though, is history and the simple fact is that Perpetual is seemingly way overweight with $806 million tied up in the three companies (almost 5 per cent of its total Australian equities under management by Insider's calculation) at a time of increasingly shaky financial markets - and no easy way to quickly cash it in without depressing the share prices.
GR finally reveals hit
GR ENGINEERING Services finally revealed yesterday afternoon that it has been hit with a $25 million legal claim hanging over its head from work it did on Allied Gold Mining's Solomon Islands mine - and the result will not be known until November.
Its shares fell more than 10 per cent to 93¢ on the news, dropping the company's market worth below $140 million, compared with the $345 million peak last July.
As Insider pointed out yesterday, GR Engineering had given no previous indication of any sizeable claim against it. The claim over its work on Allied's Gold Ridge mine seems to be claiming that the GR-designed and built plant and gold recovery circuit were inefficient.
It did, though, only land on May 18 (just two days after GR Engineering issued a profit warning), but was only admitted by the arbitrator of the case yesterday - hence the announcement.
It was a counterclaim to GR Engineering's own suit against the mine over $4.5 million of unpaid work. GR Engineering tried to argue yesterday that the reason it had said nothing specific before was because the legal action was a ''confidential'' matter, and that it had made ''general references'' to claims, and that a $1.5 million doubtful debt provision in last year's results related to this.
Insider thinks the claims do not wash, and that in the context of GR Engineering's size, even the initial $4.5 million claim was a material matter. The market clearly agrees.
Source: www.watoday.com.au
London 2012: Team GB athletes will learn anthem - head coach - BBC News
GB athletes will know the words to the national anthem before the London Games, UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee says.
The Dutchman believes the step is necessary to head off potential criticism over "plastic Brits" - athletes who have switched allegiance to represent Team GB at the Olympics.
Van Commenee said: "They know the words, or they will.
"If they don't somebody will make an issue of it."
The 53-year-old added: "(Whether it should matter), that's a different question.
"I'm not going to rehearse everybody because we have 90 athletes, but people that matter... let's say the relevant ones, the ones on your radar (will rehearse the anthem)."
Van Commenee's choice of United States-born Tiffany Porter as team captain for the World Indoor Championships in March sparked the row after she declined to sing God Save the Queen at a news conference ahead of that meeting.
Porter, who qualifies for Britain through her London-born mother and has held a British passport since birth, said she knew the words but questioned her singing ability.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Muslim girl can marry at 15 if she attains puberty: HC - rediff.com
Ruling that a Muslim girl can marry as per her choice at the age of 15 years if she has attained puberty, the Delhi [ Images ] high court has held the marriage of a minor girl valid and allowed her to stay in her matrimonial house.
"This court notes that according to Mohammedan Law a girl can marry without the consent of her parents once she attains the age of puberty and she has the right to reside with her husband even if she is below the age of 18....," a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and S P Garg said.
Citing various Supreme Court judgements on the issue of minor Muslim girls' marriage, the bench said "In view of the above judgments, it is clear that a Muslim girl who has
attained puberty i.e. 15 years can marry and such a marriage would not be a void marriage. However, she has the option of treating the marriage as voidable, at the time of her attaining the age of majority, i.e 18 years."
Accepting the 16-year-old girl's plea to allow her to stay in her matrimonial home, the bench has disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother alleging that her daughter was kidnapped by a youth and forced into marriage in April last year.
The bench accepted the girl's statement she had left her parental home of her own will to marry the man of her choice and her husband should not be booked on the charge of kidnapping.
Meanwhile, to ascertain the girl's well being, the court has directed the couple and in-laws to appear before the Child Welfare Committee once in every six months till the girl attains majority.
"The Committee shall take necessary steps, including obtaining the necessary undertaking from the man(husband) in this regard. Subject to completion of these steps, the girl be allowed to live in her matrimonial home," the bench said.
The girl has been currently residing in Nirmal Chhaya, a government sponsored home for rehabilitation of poor and elderly women.
According to the habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother, after abducting the girl who had Rs 1.5 lakh on March 13, 2011, the man had telephoned her threatening to kidnap her other daughter if any legal action was taken against him.
The petitioner claimed that on March 19 last year she had also approached the deputy commissioner of police and requested him to rescue her minor daughter from illegal detention.
As per the petition, on April 14, 2011 a First Information Report was registered with Gokalpuri police station in north-east Delhi alleging that the man had kidnapped her daughter.
The mother said police had not taken any action, forcing her to approach the high court.
During the hearing of her plea, the court had issued notice to police and subsequently police had produced the girl saying she had voluntarily gone with the man and married him.
Since then they have been staying as husband and wife, the police told the court.
On April 18, 2012 the girl had also told the court that she did not wish to go back to her parents and wanted to stay with her husband.
Meanwhile, she was kept in Nirmal Chhaya after her production before the Child Welfare Committee, which has stated that the girl was 15 years, 10 months and 23 days.
Source: www.rediff.com
Olivia Wilde: Divorce Was 'The Scariest Thing I've Ever Done' - Huffington Post
Olivia Wilde recently opened up about end of her 8-year marriage to Italian prince Tao Ruspoli.
The 28-year-old old actress, who filed for divorce in March 2011, told Amanda de Cadenet that separating was "the scariest thing I've ever done."
"You don't want to break up with someone, you dont want to end a marriage, especially if you really like the person -- you just know that something's off so you try to change everything else," she said on "The Conversation" last Thursday. "We basically built a new house and it was perfect -- just a glorious house -- and the day it was finished was the day I knew it wasn't the house."
Wilde, who tied the knot with Ruspoli on a bus in 2003 (when she was just 18), is currently dating SNL star Jason Sudeikis.
It's not the first time the actress has dished on her divorce. In March 2012, she told Town & Country magazine that divorce made her feel like "such a failure" and admitted to turning to food after the split.
Click through the slideshow below for what other stars have said about their splits:
Related on HuffPost:
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
Muslim girl can marry at 15 if she attains puberty: Delhi high court - Times of India
"This court notes that according to Mohammedan Law a girl can marry without the consent of her parents once she attains the age of puberty and she has the right to reside with her husband even if she is below the age of 18....," a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and S P Garg said.
Citing various Supreme Court judgements on the issue of minor Muslim girls' marriage, the bench said "In view of the above judgments, it is clear that a Muslim girl who has attained puberty i.e. 15 years can marry and such a marriage would not be a void marriage. However, she has the option of treating the marriage as voidable, at the time of her attaining the age of majority, i.e 18 years."
Accepting the 16-year-old girl's plea to allow her to stay in her matrimonial home, the bench has disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother alleging that her daughter was kidnapped by a youth and forced into marriage in April last year.
The bench accepted the girl's statement she had left her parental home of her own will to marry the man of her choice and her husband should not be booked on the charge of kidnapping.
Meanwhile, to ascertain the girl's well being, the court has directed the couple and in-laws to appear before the Child Welfare Committee once in every six months till the girl attains majority.
"The Committee shall take necessary steps, including obtaining the necessary undertaking from the man(husband) in this regard. Subject to completion of these steps, the girl be allowed to live in her matrimonial home," the bench said.
The girl has been currently residing in Nirmal Chhaya, a government sponsored home for rehabilitation of poor and elderly women.
According to the habeas corpus petition filed by the girl's mother, after abducting the girl who had Rs 1.5 lakh on March 13, 2011, the man had telephoned her threatening to kidnap her other daughter if any legal action was taken against him.
The petitioner claimed that on March 19 last year she had also approached the Deputy Commissioner of Police and requested him to rescue her minor daughter from illegal detention.
As per the petition, on April 14, 2011 an FIR was registered with Gokalpuri police station in northeast Delhi alleging that the man had kidnapped her daughter.
The mother said police had not taken any action, forcing her to approach the high court.
During the hearing of her plea, the court had issued notice to police and subsequently police had produced the girl saying she had voluntarily gone with the man and married him.
Since then they have been staying as husband and wife, the police told the court.
On April 18, 2012 the girl had also told the court that she did not wish to go back to her parents and wanted to stay with her husband.
Meanwhile, she was kept in Nirmal Chhaya after her production before the Child Welfare Committee, which has stated that the girl was 15 years, 10 months and 23 days.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment