THE NEWS WRAP: Boost Juice owners in talks to sell

The owners of fruit juice and smoothie chain Boost Juice, Retail Zoo, are reportedly in talks with private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners to sell the company.

The Australian Financial Review cited “sources” saying Retail Zoo was in exclusive sale negotiations with Affinity.

It says Affinity gained exclusivity to buy Retail Zoo after seeing off rival private equity suitors including Bain Capital and Archer Capital.

Online retail sales rise

Australian online retail sales rose by 1.53% in November compared to the previous month, the latest NAB Online Retail Sales Index shows.

The Australian reports that online sales were up from a flat result in October and better than sales growth of just 0.6% for traditional retailers in October.

The newspaper says online sales in the 12 months to the end of November grew by 10.7%.

Residential construction lifting

Low interest rates appear to be flowing through to construction in Australia as the rate of building continues to grow.

More new homes being built has helped the broader construction sector – a measure which takes in commercial buildings, apartments and engineering work – to its third straight month of expansion in December after three years of decline, the Herald Sun reports.

Low interest rates are clearly having their long-awaited impact,” Australian Industry Group public policy director Peter Burn said.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.42% at 16,461.36 points, while the Australian dollar is buying 89.1 US cents.