Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Dacian Gold has announced a capital raising worth up to $45 million to fund exploration at its Mt Morgans operation near Laverton.

Tap Oil has urged shareholders to reject a $29.8 million takeover bid from major shareholder Risco Energy Investments, after independent expert BDO valued the company well above the offer price.

Former governor and practising barrister Malcolm McCusker has been appointed chairman of Law Access, following the retirement of founding director Adam Ebell.

With higher fines, longer prison sentences and possibly industrial manslaughter laws coming to WA, Business News has analysed trends in workplace fatalities.

The WA market is continuing to attract new providers of alternative legal services.

Fortescue Metals Group has failed to get its hands on a crucial engineering report at the heart of a legal dispute with Canadian company TransAlta Corporation.

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting is aiming to further diversify its operations by taking over Sydney-based Riversdale Resources, which is focused on developing a new coal project in Canada.

The independent directors of Sydney-based Riversdale Resources have urged shareholders to reject the $2.20 per-share offer lobbed by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting last month.

The ranking of Perth’s major law firms has changed substantially over the past two years.

Azumah Resources’ firm rejection of Ibaera Capital’s initial takeover offer has paid dividends, with the private equity group agreeing to increase its offer for the West Perth-based miner.

NRW Holdings has purchased BGC Contracting for $116.4 million in cash, three weeks after it was named preferred bidder, and plans a capital raising of $130 million to fund the transaction.

Julian Wright has commenced legal action in the Supreme Court, claiming he was defrauded when he sold his share of the family company to his siblings, 'rich listers' Angela Bennett and the late Michael Wright.

Dacian Gold has announced details of a partially underwritten capital raising priced at just 30 cents per share as it seeks to strengthen its balance sheet and rebuild its mining operations.

Subiaco-based Perseus Mining is set to gain control of a potential new gold project near its Sissingue mine after announcing a friendly takeover bid for Exore Resources in a scrip deal worth around $60 million.

The $900 million entity to be created by the merger of Rivervale-based Access Housing Australia and an interstate counterpart will bring innovative funding for social housing to WA, it is hoped.

The engineering consortium that built the Ichthys LNG plant has lost a Court of Appeal case relating to $1.5 billion worth of claims against three contractors.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Estrin Saul Lawyers were the inaugural winners of the ‘commercial law firm’ category in WA’s annual community service law awards.

NRW Holdings is seeking its fifth acquisition after announcing a $100 million off-market takeover of fellow Perth-based contractor Primero Group.

There has been some notable progress for women in law, but they have come off a low base.

Ian Cochrane, one of Perth’s most respected corporate lawyers and company directors, has passed away. Aged just 67 years, Mr Cochrane had been battling cancer for nearly two years.

Perseus Mining has struck a friendly $C219 million deal to acquire full ownership of Canada’s Orca Gold Inc, which owns 70 per cent of a development project in Sudan.

More than a dozen law firm partners in Perth including Paul Evans, Paul Lingard and Spencer Flay are on the move in an extraordinary period of change for the sector.

Perth’s top law firms open up on the extraordinary wave of partner poaching that is reshaping the sector.

Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting could help solve a looming WA gas shortage, pledging to boost Perth Basin investment as it becomes the third company chasing Warrego Energy.

Mineral Resources hopes to bolster its position in Western Australia’s energy sector by acquiring Norwest Energy, of which keen Perth Basin investor Gina Rinehart is also a shareholder.

The board of ASX-listed oil and gas company Norwest Energy will wait until the new year to cast its verdict on Chris Ellison’s offer for the business amid fierce competition for Perth Basin assets.

Hancock Energy has revealed a cohort of Warrego shareholders pledging to support Gina Rinehart’s $342 million cash offer for the business, hitting back at a scrip bid from Strike Energy.

UPDATED: Warrego Energy has taken the unusual step of publicly criticising the two bidders for the company while Mineral Resources has revealed a 16 per cent stake.

The Norwest Energy board has recommended its shareholders reject Mineral Resources’ takeover offer, claiming the $403 million bid was “opportunistically timed”.

Zenith Insurance Services, Dardanup Butchering Co, Austral Pool Solutions, Omni Dental and Forpark Australia were among numerous private WA companies to change hands late last year.

Corporate advisory business Sternship Advisers and law firms Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Hamilton Locke lifted their market shares in 2022.

Hancock Prospecting has extended the acceptance period for its Warrego Energy bid by 10 days as it trumpets the support of another major shareholder in the target.

Shares in lithium project developer Liontown Resources have jumped nearly 70 per cent after it disclosed US company Albemarle Corporation had submitted three takeover proposals.

Leaders from some of Perth’s major professional services firms have seen big changes in their working lives over three decades.

Sydney-based technology business Atturra has offered to acquire Paul Everingham-chaired IT solutions provider Cirrus Networks in a $49 million deal.

Chilean lithium giant SQM has struck a $1.63 billion deal to acquire Mark Creasy-backed Pilbara battery metals explorer Azure Minerals, but a share raid this morning has clouded the transaction.

Perth’s super-rich Wright family has reaped a further $235 million in profits from iron ore royalties, but the most revealing number in their family company accounts was the big spend on lawyers.

Business News’ corporate finance survey shines a light on the top financial and legal advisers in WA amid a surge in gold sector activity.