Citadel Resource Group Ltd''s share gained 13% after selling an 8% stake that was pledged to the collapsed Opes Prime Stockbroking Ltd. Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty sold the 8% stake or 63 million shares at 22 cents a share, according to a report on Bloomberg News.

Citadel Resources had raised 108 million shares at 22 cents and raised A$29 million to develop the largest copper deposit mine in Saudi Arabia.

ANZ wins court approval to sell margin loan asset

ANZ won a court ruling that permitted the bank to sell secured collateral from failed broker Opes Prime Group. Opes collapsed and was forced into bankruptcy on margin loans irregularities.

Australia & New Zealand Bank together with Merrill Lynch were secured lenders to Opes. ANZ will proceed with the sale of secured asset to recover 40% of $610 million lending to Opes.

Separately ANZ plans to eliminate a staff of 35 in its wholesale mortgage business and consolidate two offices to one location in Melbourne. The operation called Origin with loan book of $5 billion worked with 20 mortgage processors.

ANZ stock rose 2.6%.

Usamanov keen to sale Mt Gibson stake

Russian business mogul Alisher Usamanov has revived his bid to sell his 19.6% in Mt Gibson Iron Ltd worth about $410 million despite a block on sale by Australian regulators.

Usamanov had sought to sell the shares to Shougang Corp but the sale fell through after Shougang''s links to existing Mt. Gibson shareholder, Hong Kong- listed APAC Resources Ltd was discovered. Usmanov intends to sell the stake, which is equivalent to 157 million shares via his company, Gazmetall Holding (Cyprus) Ltd.

The shares would be sold at a minimum of $2.60 apiece in a sale to institutional investors arranged by Merrill Lynch & Co, according to Bloomberg news. Usmanov stake since November 2006 in Mt. Gibson has tripled in value since then on rising demand for raw materials for steel from China.

Mt. Gibson called for a trading halt after informing the Australian Stock Exchange of a potential transaction concerning a material shareholding in the company.

Mt Gibson share was up 3.5%.

Kirin bids for Dairy Farmers

Japan''s biggest beverage maker, Kirin Holdings Company made a $900 million bid for Australia''s third-largest milk processor, Dairy Farmers.

Kirin''s spokesman Makoto Ando was reported to have indicated that they were interested in gaining market share in Australia as reported in Australian Financial Review.

Tokyo-based Kirin stands to gain more than half of Australia''s milk and dairy market through the acquisition and four months ago acquired National Foods for $2.14 billion.

Kirin suffering from declining beer sales in Japan is looking to expand in international markets.

Leighton wins $1 billion contract in India

Australia''s largest construction company Leighton Holdings won two contracts worth $1 billion to develop and operate open cut coal mine in north-eastern India.