PRESS DIGEST-Australian Business News - March 1

Media mogul James Packer's Crown Ltd yesterday declared that it was not a substantial shareholder in Echo Entertainment, despite acquiring 10 percent of the rival casino group. Ken Barton, chief financial office for Crown, said the company was "not a substantial holder of Echo for the purposes of the Corporations Act and therefore has no obligation to lodge a notice". Observers say this means Crown has not taken control of the 10 percent of Echo from Deutsche Bank, the investment bank believed to be the current owners of the shareholding. Page 19. --

A report filed by a Parliamentary Joint Committee yesterday said the Federal Government had not sufficiently evaluated the effects of its Future of Financial Advice reforms. The legislation was created after thousands of Australian investors lost money after receiving poor advice from financial groups such as Storm Financial. However, the report said "while regulatory impact statements were prepared for the other reforms they were not assessed as being adequate for the decision-making stage". Page 19. --

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