Turnbull scraps tax white paper; PAS Group courted with $86 million takeover offer: Midday Roundup

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reportedly scrapped the federal government’s tax reform white paper after taking office from Tony Abbott.

Fairfax reports Turnbull axed the white paper process in one of his first moves as prime minister to the “shock” of Treasury staff and the White Paper Task Force last week.

The decision came before he appointed Scott Morrison as treasurer, sources told Fairfax.

The white paper process into reforming the tax system was instigated by former treasurer Joe Hockey in 2014.

A discussion paper, which included a chapter on small business, was released in March and the government was due to release a green paper before the end of the year, followed by a white paper outlining the Coalition’s tax policies before the 2016 election.

Industry bodies, including the Business Council of Australia, are among those that have contributed to the more than 700 submissions previously submitted for inclusion in the white paper.

The news came just weeks before the white paper task force is to release a preliminary report.

PAS Group courted with $86 million takeover offer

PAS Group has received an $86 million takeover offer from US hedge fund Coliseum Capital Management, according to Fairfax.

PAS Group was founded in 2004 and is the parent company behind fashion brands such as Black Pepper, Marco Pollo and Metalicus.

The retail group told the market yesterday morning it is currently reviewing the offer and is not yet in a position to make a formal recommendation to shareholders.

PAS Group shares surged following the market update, up 11.5 cents to 63.5 cents a share.

The company’s shares continued to trade solidly this morning, up 0.79% to 64 cents a share.

Serial entrepreneur and Dodo founder Larry Kestelman owns a 10% stake in PAS Group.

Shares down on open

Aussie shares are trading lower this morning off the back of a poor showing from Wall Street.

Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said markets “returned to meltdown mode” overnight.

“Shares, commodities and risk currencies all come under pressure as fears for emerging economies dominated,” McCarthy said.

“The new market maxim appears to be ‘when in doubt, sell out’. There were no major economic releases overnight, no announcements, no surprises.

“Instead, the market abhorred the vacuum, succumbing to underlying doubts sown by the Fed’s inaction last week.

“The action may be partly explained by position trimming ahead of numbers dropping in the Asia Pacific and European sessions.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 1.7%, falling 85.4 points to 5018.2 points at 12.05pm AEST. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed down 1.09%, falling 179.72 points to 16,330.47 points.