Private Equity and Venture Capital technology investments key for investors
Chief Executive Officer of Crestone Wealth Management Michael Chisholm says investor access to the quickly growing technology sector is an important investment and social consideration in the current market cycle. Mr Chisholm said access to private equity or venture capital funds, which are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes, can help cushion portolios against any equity market downturn. Crestone recently invited a group of Australia’s leading venture capital (VC) investors to provide their views on technology. The panel included Paul Bassat, Co-Founder and Partner from Square Peg Capital, Daniel Petre, Co-Founder and Partner from AirTree Ventures, Niki Scevak, Managing Director and Founder from Blackbird Ventures, Emma Weston, Co-Founder and CEO from […]
GBST, Superestate launch digital super product
The mobile accessible fund will provide Superestate with a secure, member-oriented platform allowing greater communication and engagement with its members.
First Australian digital currency exchange regulated: Independent Reserve
Independent Reserve, the Australian digital currency exchange, yesterday became the first Australian exchange of its kind to be regulated. Independent Reserve is the first exchange to be regulated by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). Set up in 1989, AUSTRAC ensures Australian institutions conform to the required standards around Counter-Terrorism Financing and Know Your Customer rules. CEO Adrian Przelozny said the regulation represented a huge leap forward for the local digital currency industry. “We have been lobbying for increased regulation since we opened for business in 2014,” he said. “We passionately believe that the digital currency economy will – and should – become just another part of the mainstream […]
Cryptocurrency owners must be aware of tax changes
Changes to Australia’s anti-money laundering rules have come into effect today, and will see cryptocurrency exchanges and transactions more susceptible to the scrutiny of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), according to HLB Mann Judd’s Peter Bembrick. Bembrick, tax partner at HLB Mann Judd Sydney, said the rules would catch cryptocurrency owners by surprise, and ignorance is not a defence for failing to pay the appropriate tax. Bembrick said to avoid falling foul of the ATO, cryptocurrency owners should know that the ATO teats cryptocurrency as an asset for tax purposes, and, as such, the price in Australian dollars will change over time. There is also a taxable capital gain when […]
PrimaryMarkets offers liquidity for local unicorns
PrimaryMarkets is a platform for delivering liquidity to unlisted securities and investments, matching buyers and sellers in a secure controlled environment.
Westpac strikes deal with Assembly Payments
Westpac Banking Corp has bought an equity stake in Assembly Payments and will work with the Melbourne-based fintech to integrate the bank’s merchant terminals with customers’ point-of-sale (POS) software, removing the need for transaction amounts to be entered into retailers’ systems twice. For workers in the nation’s restaurants and coffee shops, entering the dollar amount of a transaction into a banking terminal to complete a sale might be a small frustration, but the extra process can add up to real dollars for business owners. Westpac estimates that for a typical Sydney CBD cafe – which completes between 1000 and 1500 transactions a day – the three to five seconds of […]
MYOB’s $180m bid to buy Reckon in doubt as Xero considered zero competition
The competition watchdog has called into doubt accounting software company MYOB’s planned $180 million acquisition of the accounting practice software unit of rival firm Reckon, saying it was concerned that the merged product would have no competition. In a statement on Thursday morning Australian Competition and Consumer Commission commissioner Roger Featherston said that If the acquisition progressed, it would likely be the only supplier of practice software suitable for medium to large accounting firms. While the hold up of its plans represents a potential blow to MYOB’s plans, it will take comfort in the backhander delivered to its main rival Xero, which had its competing Xero HQ product dismissed as […]
Crowdfund laws delayed, again
Legislation extending equity crowdfunding to private companies has been delayed again despite enjoying bipartisan support, meaning the new regime won’t come into effect until at least September, a year after the bill was first introduced to Parliament. The amendments to the Corporations Act allowing private Australian companies to undertake an equity crowdfunding round were passed by the lower house in late February after first being introduced in September last year. The bill was set to be debated – with the expectation that it would pass – in the Senate on Monday night, but was put off as a result of the ongoing debate surrounding the government’s planned company tax cut. […]
