BABCOCK & Brown will overhaul its business model after 25 banks agreed to continue providing a $2.8 billion loan facility.

SYDNEY margin lender Lift Capital is likely to be put into liquidation within weeks with a new report from its administrator expected to recommend the move next week.

A-LIST celebrities and a new $50 million corporate headquarters are German carmaker Audi's latest gambits to beat prestige rivals in Australia.

PUBLISHING company APN News & Media expects a flat net profit result for the first half of calendar 2008 as it continues to battle challenging market conditions.

PBL Media - the private-equity-controlled company that houses the Packer family's one-time flagship media assets, the Nine Network and ACP Magazines - has been valued at zero in a report by one of the country's top media analysts.

HIGHER interest rates have restrained credit demand, but appear to have done little to rein in burgeoning inflation pressures.

WORLD oil continued higher today, trading above $US141 a barrel following after reaching as high as $US143 on the weekend.

STEEL magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the biggest shareholder in ArcelorMittal, is reportedly considering entering a takeover bid for mining giant Rio Tinto.

BABCOCK & Brown has reaffirmed its annual earnings guidance.

A CHILDHOOD fascination with flying was responsible for transforming Olympian and former ironman Grant Kenny into the largest private owner of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters in the country.

LEVEES on the cresting Mississippi River held today as the worst US Midwest flooding in 15 years began to ebb, but multibillion-dollar crop losses may boost world food prices for years.

THE Australian dollar opened at its firmest level in four weeks today as expectations of a European interest rate rise weighed down the US currency.