Brewer fined for Chinese-made “Aussie Beer”; MYOB to float in $3 billion IPO in April: Midday Roundup

The consumer watchdog has fined the Independent Liquor Group $10,200 for its “Aussie Beer” product, which was in fact made in China.

ILG supplied the product between March and August 2014. The beer featured a label with the name “Aussie Beer”, along with the statement “Australia’s finest malt” and a map of Australia with the words “100% owned”. The beer also featured a green and gold colour scheme.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the packaging and labelling represented the product was made in Australia. But as the beer was made in China and supplied into Australia, the ACCC said the representations were false or misleading and therefore breached Australian Consumer Law. It subsequently issued an ILG with an infringement notice.

“Country of origin representations, particularly those designed to grab the eye of the consumer by using well-known symbols, colours, or slogans, must be truthful,” said ACCC chairman Rod Sims in a statement.

“Consumers will often place a premium on the prevenance of a product, but are unable to check the accuracy of those claims.”

“This is particularly the case with Australian made products which encourage consumers to support local industries. Consumers are entitled to expect that prominent representations made on packaging are accurate without having to check for disclosures in the fine print.”

MYOB to float in $3 billion IPO in April

Accounting software provider MYOB will debut on the stock exchange in a $3 billion float at the end of April, according to The Australian.

In what is touted to be one of the biggest listings of the year, US private equity firm Bain Capital, which holds a majority stake in MYOB, will look to raise between $700 million and $800 million via an initial public offering. The Australian reports the funds will go towards repaying debt.

Citi, Macquarie, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS and Goldman Sachs will handle the float according to the reports, and will ask investors to compare MYOB to the US accounting software giant, Intuit, which has a market capitalisation of US$27billion ($34 billion).

Bain acquired MYOB from Archer Capital in September 2011 for $1.2 billion.

Shares down on open

Aussie shares are in the red this morning, with continued volatility in commodity prices take a toll in early morning trade.

“Add to this the continuing lack of economic data releases and a sluggish Wall Street session and it was no surprise to see the market struggling,” said Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, in a statement.

“Market turnover into lunch was very strong at $6.401 billion, but this include Chevron’s 50% sale of its Caltex shares,” K’Nell said.

“This afternoon the market is likely to continue to be cautious with again no driver in today’s session. Ahead of the Reserve Bank’s rates decision tomorrow it will be interested to see if we see some bargain hunting this afternoon, any interest in the big banks could be a potential driver of any afternoon gains.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 85.2 points to 5834.7 points at 11.55am AEDT. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed 34.43 points higher, up 0.19% to 17712.7 points.