RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Major Essay Requirement: 2000 word analysis of a problem encountered by mangers of international business firms.


On 31 August 2012 it was announced by the Federal treasurer Wayne Swan that he’d approved the proposed sale of Cubbie Group. Cubbie Group is reportedly the largest water license holder and commercial agricultural operation on the Murray-Darling Basin, with a cotton growing enterprise that spans two main properties located near Dirranbandi and St George in south-west Queensland, covering 93,000 hectares. The announcement followed advice by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), which examines proposals by foreign persons to invest in Australia and makes recommendations to the Treasurer on those subject to the

Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 and Australia's foreign investment policy. The approval was given to a consortium comprising Chinese textile company (Shandong RuYi Scientific & Technological Group) and Australian-owned wool and grain marketing company (Lempriere Group). Initially, the Consortium would be 80 per cent owned by RuYi and 20 per cent by Lempriere, with an undertaking said to be given by RuYi to reduce its stake to 51 per cent within three years.

Chinese companies – both private and state-owned – are reported to have invested over $3 billion in Australia in 2011, an 86 per cent increase from 2010. Cubbie Group has been listed for sale since it was placed into voluntary administration in October 2009, following significant financial difficulties. The potential sale of Cubbie Group to the RuYi-led consortium has thus been applauded as reducing uncertainty, creating jobs and supporting economic activity in the Dirranbandi and St George region. Despite the FIRB approval, however, concerns have been raised in the media about important environmental assets being -flogged off- to a foreign company, and questions posed over the Chinese company’s ultimate ownership. These views reflect a wider concern about -selling off the farm- and whether this is in the long term national interests.


-The Australian government’s policy towards foreign direct investment, as reflected in the FIRB approval for the Cubbie Group sale, diminishes the attractiveness of Australia for foreign direct investors, but safeguards the national interests in the short and long term, and creates opportunities for local firms and industry-.

Discuss