Category: News

Written by Andrew Carswell

IT will be unabashed luxury, a creative masterpiece, a centrepiece for Australia’s biggest urban development – and it will all be staffed with eager workers from western Sydney.

Billionaire gaming mogul James Packer will build a $10 million college in Penrith to train 1250 staff to work in what he claims will be one of the world’s greatest hotels – his $1 billion six-star Crown Sydney Hotel Resort at Barangaroo. The Crown chairman yesterday signed a deal with the Penrith’s Panthers club that will see the state-of-the-art training facility built within the club’s proposed community centre.

Mirrored on the company’s successful in-house Crown College in Melbourne, which has trained 4300 apprentices in the past 10 years, the Penrith centre will feature a school of business, a hotel and food academy built around a large-scale replica restaurant, and a fully equipped gaming hall.

Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, Panthers NRL stars will be hired as mentors for for the trainees and, in turn, gain a career pathway after football. Crown will also push into local Penrith schools and create avenues for students to complete school-based traineeships and apprenticeships. Panthers staff also will be given the opportunity to be trained in the college and seconded to work at Barangaroo when required.

For Mr Packer, as with the extensive footprint of his proposed casino resort on Sydney Harbour, location was imperative.

He personally wanted to offer an opportunity to western Sydney, where high-class training avenues are seldom found and luxury-focused hospitality jobs are even rarer, and where his passion for giving the indigenous community the tools for success can be utilised.

“Crown Sydney, if it is approved, will employ 1250 people; this announcement today gets those jobs to where they are needed most – Sydney’s west,” he said.

“This partnership will mean real training and real jobs. It’s not about certificates that go nowhere, it’s about getting people into long-term and secure employment.”

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By Nick Sas

The lethargic initial public offering market surrounding small cap stocks is continuing from last year as investors shy away from the challenging market conditions, a leading IPO business accountancy firm says.

Partners at the Perth-based arm of HLB Mann Judd, which handled eight floats last year, say only one IPO is on their books so far this year, with planned market listings well down on last year.

Five companies have come on to the boards this year, including WA-focused uranium explorer Zeus Resources which has halved in value since listing last week.

The challenging conditions are a continuation of last year, with just 46 IPOs completed compared to 104 in 2011. Of the companies that listed last year 48 per cent recorded losses.

Speaking at an IPO breakfast yesterday, A1 Consolidated Gold chairman Ashok Parekh said part of the blame for the lack of confidence in the IPO market should fall on the Federal Government, which had created uncertainty through the mining and carbon tax.

Mr Parekh, who also chairs Macphersons Resources, said the high labour cost environment in Australia also contributed to the lack of investor faith in new listings.

He said many small cap companies had been looking at overseas investors to fill the void as the local markets dried up.

HLB Mann Judd partner Norman Neill said alternatives such as backdoor listings and merger and acquisition activity would become increasingly common this year as private companies looked for alternatives.

However, Mr Parekh said many managers and directors of small caps were too concerned about their own personal salaries to agree to mergers, and were not focused on shareholder wealth.

Despite the doom and gloom, NSW-based Indoor Skydiving Australia, which listed on January 18, has doubled in value from its 20¢ listing price to close at 40¢ yesterday.

Other companies to list so far this year include Perth explorer Cott Oil and Gas, NSW energy and water conservation company Ecosave Holdings and Singapore-based oil and gas contractor Oilfield Workforce Group.

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ISA Group’s sponsored team, The Addicted, proudly put their country on the regional map by competing in the Indoor Skydiving World Championships; the first time Australia has competed in Vertical Formation Skydiving. Australia was also the only country to compete that did not have a VWT – a testament to the team’s talent and performance. It is akin to training for Mountain Climbing in a country without mountains.

With a growing international interest in VWTs, the forthcoming construction of the Penrith Facility will support national teams like The Addicted and provide Australia’s indoor skydiving community with the technology to train and enhance their skills. ISA Group intend to position Australia as a leading provider of simulated skydiving training and use the facility as a future platform for international competitions.

View footage of their great performances in Singapore:

Wayne Jones and Danny Hogan talk to Sunrise correspondent, Nick Etchells, and introduce him to the world of Indoor Skydiving:

Prior to ISA Group’s event in Brisbane, Company founder, Danny Hogan, took some time out to speak to 4BC on their lunchtime radio show.

Listen to the full interview: https://xrgroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/4BC-Interview.mp3