Renting for life? Housing shift requires rethink of renters’ rights By Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne Australia is the world capital for property speculation. Australians play property like Monopoly: buying, selling, demolishing, rebuilding, extending, renovating, always with the promise of appreciation on resale. The contribution to GDP of real...

Engaging in Myanmar: whose interest are we serving? By Jonathan Bogais, University of Sydney Myanmar is the “new frontier” of the Asia-Pacific region. With its large potential markets, abundant natural resources and strategic position, competition for control of the anticipated revenues intensifies pressure on all sides. While economic development...

Screen Daily have released the epitome of studio performance in 2013 – which is topical given The Merkin Group’s newly expanded  footprint in the global tentpole film acquisition and distribution business. Sony’s China box office swells 22% Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) top brass reported significant year-on-year gains in...

It has been another impressive year for the S&P/ASX 200, with the index returning a total of 17.6 per cent to investors. Returns haven’t been evenly spread across each sector as the broader economy grappled with reduced mining spend and a strong currency, choking export-driven sectors. The materials sector...

The post blockbuster stock dip in studio stocks as been a surprisingly common occurrence in recent yeras – and it has it parallels in other industries – one only has to observe the phenomena in Australia when an announcement is made at or above market expectations yet the stock...

Foreign investment and the popularity test: does GrainCorp set a new precedent? At any other time, Friday’s decision by treasurer Joe Hockey to reject Archer Daniels Midland’s (ADM) A$3.4 billion takeover bid for GrainCorp might have been just another controversial foreign investment decision. Indeed, were it not for a...

To me, much of the argument about whether or not markets are efficient misses the point. There are conditions, it seems, under which markets seem to do a great job of managing risk, keeping the cost of capital reasonable, and allocating capital to its most productive use, and there...

Having  successfully placed AUD  1Mil  in 2013 our Australian client  has re mandated BoxRED/Merkin.  Our client is an Australian company bringing an integration of new and innovative online wagering and social gaming products to the Australian market. BoxRED are to identify and facilitate the introduction of  global investors and/or strategic investors...

China is willing to complete a free trade agreement with Australia as soon as possible, China’s Ministry of Commerce has said at a ministry press conference this week. “Both sides have relatively large differences in investment, agriculture and services, but have been trying to find ways to move the...

Copyrights and copywrongs: reforming educational film rights By Ruari Elkington, Queensland University of Technology At the end of November, after 18 months of deliberations, the Australian Law Reform Commission will hand down its report on the appropriateness of existing copyright laws in the new digital environment. Among the questions...