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This Month

A Trump presidency could hurt investments in China and the energy transition, Anthony Scaramucci has warned.

Trump will hit clean energy and any nation linked with Asia

If Donald Trump wins the White House, investors should be prepared for a drop in climate change investments and worse US relations with the world, his former adviser says.

  • Hannah Wootton

August

Accolade Wines chief executive Robert Foye has quit the role after four-and-a-half years.

Accolade Wines CEO Robert Foye quits private equity-backed group

The CEO had been at the helm of Australia’s second-largest wine group, with brands including Hardys, Grant Burge and St Hallett, for almost four-and-a-half years.

  • Simon Evans
James Williamson, who has been a fund manager in Australia for more than 15 years, is rolling up his sleeves  and becoming the interim CEO of one of the companies he invests in - McGuigan and Tempus Two owner Australian Vintage.

The fundie who unexpectedly became CEO of a wine company

James Williamson has temporarily jumped the fence to run Australian Vintage, and is agitating for M&A. His fund owns shares in the listed wine group.

  • Simon Evans
 Australia is on tracks to produce 5 million bales of cotton in 2024 and a similar number next year.

Olam bid for Namoi Cotton doomed, says former competition boss

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels sees no way Olam can get approval for a takeover of Namoi Cotton.

  • Brad Thompson
Wolf Blass arrived in Australia in 1961 and established the Wolf Blass wine brand in 1966. He says he’s a practical man and has been through three or four ups and downs in the wine cycle since then and isn’t bitter about the decision by Treasury Wine Estate’s to put it up for sale.

In ‘diabolical trouble’ – How big wine brands fell out of favour

Wolf Blass, who set up his eponymous wine brand almost 60 years ago, says the cheaper end of the wine sector is in ‘diabolical trouble’ but the cycle will turn positive again.

  • Simon Evans
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Nufarm is reaping the benefits from strong demand in grain and crop protection.

Nufarm shares plunge after profit downgrade

The company was hit hard as it backtracks on guidance issued three months ago based on weak prices for farm chemicals and lower than expected returns on omega-3 canola oil.

  • Brad Thompson
Treasury Wine Estates chief executive Tim Ford.

Penfolds owner lifts dividend, revamps global arm

Treasury Wine, Australia’s biggest wine group, is merging two of its divisions by mid-2025 to create a global premium brands unit.

  • Simon Evans
Treasury Wine chief executive Tim Ford has decided to offload four sizeable commercial wine brands - Wolf Blass, Yellowglen, Lindeman’s and Blossom Hill - with drinkers increasingly opting for higher-quality wines.

Treasury Wine to offload Wolf Blass, Lindeman’s, Yellowglen

Australia’s biggest wine group will cop a $354m impairment and shop around its cheaper wine brands as part of a strategic reset for the Penfolds owner.

  • Simon Evans
Elders is using robots to lift and stack wool bales at it new handling centre at Ravenhall in Melbourne.

Elders makes biggest wool investment in 20 years with robot handlers

Boss Mark Allison is rolling out the robots as the agribusiness makes a high-tech return to wool handling 185 years after its founders started out in the game.

  • Brad Thompson

July

John Setka, former union boss and, now, former redundancy fund director.

John Setka – finally – leaves Incolink

No individual is bigger than the union, but Setka thought he was bigger than a CFMEU redundancy fund for a while.

  • Hannah Wootton
Grain Producers Australia director Andrew Weidemann on his farm at Rupanyup in Victoria.

Court ruling rejecting weedkiller link to cancer welcomed by farmers

Federal Court rejects class action linking Australia’s most widely used farm chemical, glyphosate, to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

  • Brad Thompson
Wheat being loaded onto a bulk carrier in Geelong. COFCO, a major processor, has been accused of manipulating wheat futures.

ASIC says Beijing-owned agriculture giant manipulated wheat contracts

COFCO placed improper trades on the exchange in 2022, improperly affecting the futures’ settlement price, ahead of the Ukraine war, the corporate regulator alleges in court filings.

  • Max Mason
Australia Meat Group’s Dandenong facility processes up to 1500 head of cattle a day.

Global beef players line up for Australian Meat Group

Street Talk understands Brazilian giants Minerva Foods and Marfrig, and China linked New Hope are getting their ducks in a row.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Quintis Group had large plantations of Indian sandalwood trees in WA and the NT but collapsed for the second time in six years.

End of the road comes in two-decade saga over sandalwood group Quintis

The company once known as TFS Corporation will be split up and liquidated after KordaMentha failed to find a buyer for the entire business.

  • Simon Evans
Pernod Ricard’s portfolio includes the iconic Jacob’s Creek brand.

Pernod Ricard exits Australian wine making, sells to Bain consortium

The French giant’s portfolio of local brands – as well as those in New Zealand and Spain – will be combined with Accolade Wines, the company behind Hardys.

  • Kylar Loussikian
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The Lyndoch vineyard in the Barossa Valley is being acquired by Seppeltsfield.

Seppeltsfield buys up as Australian Vintage offloads two vineyards

The ASX-listed producer behind McGuigan and Tempus Two will exit one property in NSW and sell another in South Australia to its privately owned rival.

  • Kylar Loussikian
Incitec Pivot CEO Mauro Neves has cut off sale talks with its Indonesian suitor for its fertiliser business.

Incitec Pivot ditches fertiliser sale talks with Indonesian buyer

The chemicals giant said it shelved the negotiations due to transaction delays as it flagged a $900 million on-market share buyback would still go ahead.

  • Carrie LaFrenz