MissChu staff unlikely to be paid as company placed in liquidation; Terry White pays $2.76 million for Chemplus: Midday Roundup

The voluntary administrators brought in to save MissChu have said the restaurant’s 200 past and present employees will face an uphill battle to get what they are owed from the business.

KordaMentha executive director Rahul Goyal told ninemsn employees are owed a cut of $1 million in unpaid entitlements, including unpaid superannuation contributions, annual leave, long service leave, redundancy and in lieu payments.

But Goyal said staff will likely not claw back their lost super and non-Australian residents are expected to walk away altogether empty-handed.

Last month a deal was reached with Melbourne-based restructuring specialist Mawson Group to buy the business alongside founder Nahji Chu, creating a new entity, MissChu Holdings.

A Mawson Group spokesperson told ninemsn the group would honour entitlements to staff who have moved over to MissChu Holdings.

Terry White pays $2.76 million for Chemplus

Queensland-based pharmacy group Terry White Chemists will pay $2.76 million to acquire South Australian rival chain Chemplus.

The Advertiser reports 60 Chemplus stores will be acquired by Terry White Chemists parent company TWC Group Investments before July 31.

The acquisition will give the Terry White group a combined network of 230 stores across South Australia and Queensland, with a market share of more than 8%.

The Chemplus stores will operate as a separate division with the Terry White group but will be rebranded as “a part of Terry White Chemists”.

“We will be working very closely with the Chemplus network to ensure we identify the ‘best of both worlds’ to further drive success in all of the pharmacies,” said TWC Group chairman and founder Terry White.

Shares down on open

Aussie shares are down this morning, following a mixed lead from international markets overnight.

“After recent selling pressure, the absence of bad news was all it took to unleash animal spirits and drive European and US shares higher overnight,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, in a statement.

“Risks remain elevated, especially in the lack of agreement between Greece and the rest of the world, but investors shrugged them aside in a night of solid buying. However, gains were tempered as a stronger USD deflated some enthusiasm.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 24 points to 5701.3 points at 12:16pm AEST. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones closed up 0.67%, rising 121.45 points to 18,163 points.