New Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo has
called in Boston-based consultancy Bain to review Telstra’s $11 billion
annual cost base ahead of the company’s planned $30 billion
privatisation, reports The Australian.
Heading the costs project will be Bain partner Andrew Klein, who has
previously worked with Trujillo in Europe and is the fourth American he has put in charge of a review.

Also in The Australian, Macquarie Bank won performance fees
of $168 million in the past six months, taking fee income from its
listed infrastructure trusts to a record $413 million for the year to
June – up almost tenfold from its income in the
previous year to June.

Commonwealth Bank has sold its life insurance and financial
planning business in Hong Kong for $600 million, opting instead to
focus on mainland China, reports the Smage. CBA’s head of international financial services, Garry Mackrell,
said the bank had never been happy with its “strategic positioning”
in Hong Kong after inheriting the business five years ago through
its Colonial acquisition.

On Wall Street, US stocks finished with heavy losses overnight,
after investors were unnerved by oil future prices breaking
above $61 a barrel for the first time.
The August crude future later closed at a record $61.29, up
$1.69 or 2.8%. The Dow Jones closed down 101.1 points at 10,270 –
MarketWatch has a full report here.