Commissioner says Vodafone breached Privacy Act: Economy roundup

The Privacy Commissioner has found that telco Vodafone breached the Privacy Act when staff allowed access to private customer data, but said that contrary to several reports data was not publicly available on the internet.

“The Privacy Commissioner can find no evidence that this information was available on the internet or Vodafone’s website,” the report says.

“However the investigation did show that a small number of staff may have breached Vodafone’s internal policies relating to the appropriate use of login IDs and passwords.”

Vodafone has agreed to make changes to its security systems, to undertake an IT review and to issue individual login IDs to all staff.

BHP announces $10 billion share buyback

Mining giant BHP announced that it will conduct a $U10 billion share buyback and focus more on expansion rather than takeovers, with plans to spend $US80 billion on new projects during the next five years.

Chief executive Marius Kloppers told reporters that given the acquisitions the company has been forced to abandon during the past three years an organic growth strategy is more appropriate. 

“While I can’t rule out anything … if you put those couple of things together you have a clear takeaway of our priorities, particularly in the light of the emphasis of the capital investment program today,” he says.

“While we expect a slowdown in the growth rate of global commodity demand in calendar year 2011 the economic environment still underpins a robust near-term outlook for our products.”

The share buyback announcement was welcomed by the company’s shareholders.

James Bruce, portfolio manager at top-10 shareholder Perpetual Investments, said the $US80 billion commitment was a good sign.

“We think that this demonstrates the challenges that the industry is having satisfying rising demand while replacing declining production from mature operations,” he told Reuters.

Westfield returns to profit

Property giant Westfield has recorded a net profit of $1.1 billion in the year to December 31, up from the $457.8 million loss recorded in 2009.

The company said its global operations had proved strong and investments in the United States and Britain had improved.

‘‘The group’s restructure provides the platform for enhanced long term-growth and we continue to focus on initiatives to improve return on equity,’’ managing director Peter Lowy says.

‘‘These initiatives include investment in our more productive assets, the introduction of new joint venture capital and the expansion of our business globally.’’

Shares open flat on weak US leads

The Australian share market opened lower this morning after a flat performance on US markets, where prominent investor Ken Fisher said he was more neutral on stocks than ever.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 4.5 points or 0.09% to 4926.5 at 12.10 AEST while the Australian dollar slipped below parity to US99c.

AMP shares gained 0.55% to $5.47, Commonwealth Bank shares rose 0.94% to $53.8, ANZ went up 0.2% to $25.53 and Westpac gained 1.23% to $24.61.

Domino’s Pizza profit up 17%

Domino’s recorded a 17% increase in half-year profit to $10.2 million, with revenue from ordinary activities up by 1.25% to $120.9 million.

The company said successful marketing promotions were the main reasons behind the rise.

Wall Street stocks flat with investors nervous

Investors on Wall Street have been made nervous by comments from Ken Fisher, who said he was more neutral on stocks than he had been in years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41.55 points or 0.34% to 12,226.64.