Republican leaders of Australia and NZ to pledge allegiance to king

By Alasdair Pal and Lucy Craymer SYDNEY/WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The leaders of Australia and New Zealand will pledge their allegiance to King Charles at his coronation in London on Saturday even though both are life-long republicans who do not shy away from making their positions clear. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his New Zealand…

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Australia’s ANZ looks beyond housing as rate hikes hit margins

By Byron Kaye and Savyata Mishra (Reuters) -Australian lender ANZ Banking Group Ltd said it was diversifying beyond a residential mortgage market gripped by competition on Friday as earnings from its institutional arm overtook home lending. The country’s No. 4 lender reported a record first-half result as banks shift away from their traditional earnings engine…

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Macquarie commodities and markets boss earns $39 million, trumping CEO

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Macquarie Group’s commodities and global markets (CGM) division head earned about A$57.6 million ($39 million) for the year ending March 31, topping the CEO’s A$32.8 million compensation, according to the Australian bank’s annual report. Nick O’Kane’s 59% pay bump – he earned A$36.2 million in the last financial year – came after…

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Downer faces second class action lawsuit over breach of contract disclosures

(Reuters) – Australia’s Downer EDI said on Friday it was served with a second class action lawsuit by certain shareholders alleging breach of disclosures regarding a maintenance contract undertaken by the company’s segment in July 2019. The class action, filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased Downer shares between July 2019 and February 2023, comes…

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Australia central bank frets over upside risks to inflation as it warns on rates

SYDNEY, May 5 (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank on Friday warned that risks to inflation were on the upside given low productivity growth, rising energy prices and a surge in rents as population growth out paces all expectations. In a quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) reiterated that interest rates…

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Australia budget to trim forecast for cost of servicing debt for next three years

By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia has lowered its forecast for the cost of servicing government debt over the next three years, though the government still sees annual repayments rising to a peak in fiscal 2025/26 before declining slightly. Interest payments on Australian government securities are forecast to total A$85.8 billion ($57.18 billion) between…

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Albemarle agrees $1.5 billion plan to double Australian lithium hydroxide output

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Albemarle has agreed to double the capacity at its lithium hydroxide processing operations in Western Australia to 100,000 tonnes by 2026 and spend around $1.5 billion to build two more trains at the facility, Albemarle said on Wednesday. Construction is expected to start immediately at Albemarle’s Kemerton operations south of Perth, with the…

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