Infigen seeks $525m debt refinancing as profit jumps

Renewable energy company Infigen is seeking a half a billion dollar refinancing, a move that will allow it to consider reintroducing distributions to shareholders in future, as it lifted half-year profit 25 per cent.

Infigen currently operates six wind farms across
Australia and is building a seventh at Bodangora.

The wind farm energy generator has announced it will refinance its existing debt through a $525 million facility with Goldman Sachs.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Age - “Infigen seeks $525m debt refinancing as profit jumps.”

The four breakthroughs that will revolutionise long-haul flights in 10 to 15 years

Australians love travelling. We enthusiastically jump on planes, seeking out wonders of the world.

US start-up Boom Technology have designed
a supersonic jet that would reduce flight time between
Sydney and Los Angeles to 7.5 hours.

But we're increasingly conscious of our wellbeing onboard these long-haul flights. Will advancements in technology help resolve this dilemma?

By 2035, there will be almost twice the number of passengers as 2016, according to the International Air Transport Association, leaping from 3.8 billion to a huge 7.2 billion.

As the aviation industry prepares for billions of new customers, here's some of the trends that will revolutionise flying in the next 10 to 15 years.

Read the ABC News story by Chrystal Zhang - "The four breakthroughs that will revolutionise long-haul flights in 10 to 15 years.”

(Chrystal Zhang omits/forgets/sidesteps the much-needed discussion about how all this will happen in an energy restrained future or the fact that unrestrained climate change, a certainty if people continue to live with expectations that evolved in an energy-rich 20th Century, will render the promises of travel hollow. Exciting, yes; possible, unlikely - Robert McLean)

Adani mining giant faces financial fraud claims as it bids for Australian coal loan

A global mining giant seeking public funds to develop one of the world’s largest coal mines in Australia has been accused of fraudulently siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money into overseas tax havens.

Men wearing masks of Australian prime minister Malcolm
Turnbull and Adani chairman Gautam Adani protest outside
Parliament House in Canberra. 

Indian conglomerate the Adani Group is expecting a legal decision in the “near future” in connection with allegations it inflated invoices for an electricity project in India to shift huge sums of money into offshore bank accounts.

Details of the alleged 15bn rupee (US$235m) fraud are contained in an Indian customs intelligence notice obtained by the Guardian, excerpts of which are published for the first time here.

The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) file, compiled in 2014, maps out a complex money trail from India through South Korea and Dubai, and eventually to an offshore company in Mauritius allegedly controlled by Vinod Shantilal Adani, the older brother of the billionaire Adani Group chief executive, Gautam Adani.

Read Michael Safi’s story on The Guardian - “Adani mining giant faces financial fraud claims as it bids for Australian coal loan.”