Daily News Roundup

The Australian-grown cosmetics empire Napoleon Perdis Group has gone into voluntary administration, putting jobs and 56 local stores at risk.

Company directors had been trying to find a buyer for the makeup chain for months.

The administrators Simon Cathro, Chris Cook and Ivan Glavas of Worrells Solvency Accountants will now consider a restructure or pursue the sale option while the business continues to trade.

Napoleon Perdis, who is now based in Athens, opened his first makeup store in 1995 in Paddington, Sydney. After expanding into Australian department stores, the brand launched overseas and operated in the US for more than a decade.

A statement released by the administrators on Thursday said the company’s directors had been trying to sell the business for several months.

“The brand is still in high demand from our customers,” Perdis said, adding that restructuring the business would put it in a “prime position to continue to evolve through continued trade or in a sale”.

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Australia’s property downturn has continued into the new year — with the national value, on average, dropping 1 per cent last month.

Since peaking in October 2017, the median value has fallen 6.1 per cent to $528,553, according to the most recent figures from property analysts CoreLogic.

Tighter lending conditions and “a further dent to confidence” are expected ahead of the federal election and banking royal commission’s final report — to be released publicly next Monday.

“This is the new normal,” Tim Lawless, CoreLogic’s head of research, told ABC News.

“For prospective borrowers, it’s become much harder to obtain finance if they’re on high debt-to-income ratios, or have a track record of large expenses.”

“Tight credit conditions, weakening consumer sentiment, less domestic and foreign investment and higher levels of housing supply are the primary drivers of the worsening conditions.”

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Australian political parties declared donations worth $16.7m in the 2017-18 financial year, according to the latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission.

This amount is lower than usual, with donations averaging $25.2m a year over the past 11 years.

The largest donation overall, $2.3m, was made by Vapold Pty Ltd to the Liberal party.

The party with the most donations was the Liberal party, which declared $7.6m, followed by the Labor party with $7.1m.

The Labor party also declared $33.2m in “other receipts”, which includes money received from investments, but also includes money from party fundraisers where people pay for event tickets in lieu of donations.