Macquarie Bank is taking a long-term view with its pound stg. 1.5 billion ($3.5 billion) bid for the London Stock
Exchange, says Bryan Frith in The Australian – the bid documents say the aim of the cornerstone bidder
Macquarie Financial Infrastructure Fund (MFIF) is to own the LSE for
more than 25 years. Yet at the same time the members of the bidding consortium have entered
into agreements that govern the situation should consortium members
wish to sell their stake in the LSE, or if there is a change of control among consortium members.
Essentially the consortium members have the ability to acquire the other’s holdings before they can be sold to third parties.

But if the offer really has no chance, as some LSE shareholders have
reportedly commented, Allan Moss’s colonial upstarts appear to be wasting a
lot of time and effort trying to win them over, says Anthony Hughes in
The Fin Review. And it’s hard to look past the sheer temerity of it
all. Macquarie clearly has a burning desire to get the attention of
investors in one of the world’s key financial centres like it has in
Australia through the purchase of such high-profile assets as Sydney
Airport.

Also in the AFR, cold, hard cash – and lots of it – has become
the only currency to secure staff in major industries stricken by
skills shortages that have now been officially classed as the most
severe on record. New employees are demanding hefty entry-level salaries
and companies working on big construction and infrastructure projects
will be offering pay rises of up to 15% this year in an effort
to secure staff, according to a survey of major recruitment firms.

And Harvey Norman is considering joining forces with a private
equity group to lodge a bid early next month for the troubled Myer
department stores, reports The Smage. Chairman Gerry Harvey says the group is examining all
possibilities, including a solo bid, ahead of the deadline for
final bids.

On Wall Street, US stocks ended higher overnight as strength in
the technology sector helped the Nasdaq Composite clinch its seventh
straight session of gains (up 11.04 points to 2,331), while the Dow
Jones overcame early weakness sparked by a profit warning from DuPont.
The Dow closed up 31.86 points at 11,043 – MarketWatch has a full
report here.