THE NEWS WRAP: Quadrant Private Equity sells stake in Red Rooster, Oporto

Quadrant Private Equity has sold its 75% stake in fast-food chains Red Rooster and Oporto to rival Archer Capital for $450 million, in what is the largest deal of its kind this year.

The sale comes after Quadrant scrapped its plans for an initial public offering of Quick Service Restaurant Holdings, underlining concern the IPO market might be dead until well into next financial year.

ATO’s tough approach boosts bankruptcies

Money owed to the Tax Office by bankrupted individuals and insolvent companies has soared by nearly 20% to $5 billion in the past year, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.

In 2010, the ATO initiated 1.4% and 5.3% of Australian bankruptcies and wind-ups respectively, as a result of firmer action by the Tax Office.

Flights resuming after ash cloud chaos

Flights started to resume late yesterday after a chaotic long weekend, which saw around 60,000 airline passengers stranded due to volcanic ash clouds caused by a volcanic eruption in China more than a week ago.

Virgin Australia has resumed flights to and from Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand, while Qantas has also resumed flights to and from Melbourne but has kept New Zealand and Tasmanian services on hold.

Overnight

The Australian dollar was little changed on Tuesday morning.

Just after 6am this morning, the Australian dollar was trading at US 106.04 cents,  down slightly from US106.06 cents on Friday.