Sharon Olalia

Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (MMA) (ASX:MRM) has won a contract to provide supply base services to Chevron Australiain in support of the energy giant's exploration and production drilling activities off the North West Shelf and ongoing production facilities on Thevenard Island.

Retail Food Group Ltd (ASX:RFG) says it had reached a conditional agreement to acquire the New Zealand master franchise business for the Esquires Coffee Houses franchise system.

Property firm Goodman Group Ltd (ASX:GMG) and partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the All Pensions Group and the China Investment Corporation have made their formal bid for the ING Industrial Fund (ASX: IIF).

Tower Australia Group Ltd (ASX:TAL) says Japan's Dai-ichi Life Insurance had offered to acquire all of the issued shares in Tower that it does not already own for $4 cash per share. Dai-ichi currently owns 29 percent of the Australian company.

Goodman Group and three global investors have made a cash offer to acquire 100 per cent of the ordinary units in ING Industrial Fund after four weeks of negotiation.

Leighton subsidiary (ASX: LEI) John Holland has won the Stage Two Contract for the design and construction of the new Albany Health Campus in Western Australia. The contract is valued at approximately $152 million.

Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ), the world's largest wine company, has signed an agreement to sell its Australian and UK business, to Champ Private Equity of Sydney, Australia in a transaction valued at approximately A$290 million.

The Australian stock market ended the day on a high, as resource and financial stocks both rallied.

Local stocks closed at highs not seen since April today, underpinned by stronger commodity prices and takeover activity. In thin trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose 18.6pts or 0.4pct to finish at 4888.2.

Australian-based OneSteel Ltd (ASX:OST) says it has met all regulatory conditions to buy the Moly-Cop and AltaSteel businesses from global mining group Anglo American.

Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) says it has completed a 100 per cent divestment of its equity holdings in US collier Cloud Peak Energy Inc. through a fully exercised over allotment in connection with a recently announced secondary offering.

Resource giant Rio Tinto Group (ASX: RIO) has agreed to buy Australian-listed coal miner Riversdale Mining Ltd (ASX: RIV) for A$16 a share, in a deal which values the target at around $3.9 billion.

Foster's Group Ltd (ASX:FGL) says its Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) and Carlsberg Group have extended a long-term exclusive licence to sell the Danish brewer's brands in Australia.

The three most popular social media sites in Australia -- Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter -- are all offering new services with a business focus.

Eight out of 10 Australian borrowers believe the government's planned bank reforms do not go far enough to help and that more could be done to crackdown on interest rate rises.

Retail sales nationally are down on forecasts, and most retailers are doing worse than this time last year.

Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) $200 million investment plan to drill three wells in the Bay of Bengal has received approval from the government of Bangladesh.

Australia's biggest sugar milling company CSR Ltd has successfully completed the sale of Sucrogen to Singapore's Wilmar International for $A1.843 billion.

New Zealand firm Contact Energy's(NZE:CEN) $1 billion geothermal power station in Taupo has been granted resource consent.

Melbourne-based clean energy company Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd (AIM/ASX:CFU) is expanding its UK presence.

Independent energy retailer Australian Power & Gas (APG) (ASX: APK) had signed two new contracts for wholesale gas supply.

New research shows renewable energy is fast-becoming an alternative for Australian consumers.

Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) said today its Bonikro gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire has reduced site activities to a minimum due to the situation following the elections in the African country.

The New Zealand Ministry of Transport (MoT) today approved the proposed alliance between Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand, allowing the two to operate integrated services on trans-Tasman routes.

Building materials supplier Boral Ltd (ASX:BLD) has penned a deal to acquire Owens Corning Masonry Products LLC (Cultured Stone) from Owens Corning, a stone veneer company in North America.

Metal producer BlueScope Steel (ASX:BSL) has executed a A$1.35 billion syndicated facility agreement.

Australia's annual population growth rate stalled to 1.7 per cent in the year ending June 2010, according to preliminary figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd's (ASX: VBA) Keith Neate today stepped down as the company's chief financial officer.

Developer Lend Lease today announced it has entered into an agreement with Bilfinger Berger SE to acquire 100 per cent of Valemus Australia, the parent company of Abigroup, Baulderstone and Conneq, for A$960 million.