Insights

The search for a new chief executive to lead David Jones would likely disrupt the retailer's transformation into a successful omni-channel business and comes just as it enters a trading period responsible for nearly half its annual profit, analysts say.

The sharemarket touched a 5-year high as the world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, drove market gains.

ANZ shares hit a record high on Tuesday, creeping ever closer to the sharemarket's exclusive $100 billion club as the financial sector continues its stellar run this year.

The publicity machine for the Nine Entertainment float is to crank up the day before the Melbourne Cup this year, with the media group's gaggle of investment banks scheduled to have a prospectus ready to lodge with the corporate regulator on November 4.

Southern Cross received a first strike at its shareholders' meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday with more than 25 per cent of shareholders rejecting its remuneration report.

The cost of protecting Australian underwriters against natural catastrophes is likely to rise, one of the world's biggest insurance brokers says, despite billions in new capital flowing into reinsurance markets.

Lend Lease has increased its development project business to $37.4 billion, the largest in its 50-year history. It is dominated by Barangaroo South, Darling Harbour and the Elephant and Castle site in London.

Investors have put close to $1 billion into food-anchored shopping centres in the past year, with demand forecast to rise despite weak growth in the retail sector.

Mirvac directors believe this calendar year will represent a trough in the present office market cycle, while demand for residential developments will remain high as low interest rates entice first home buyers.

The conversion of office towers into residential property is gaining momentum for developers and investors, while also providing some relief for office landlords facing rising leasing vacancy levels.

DEXUS Property Group has forecast a turnaround in the national office leasing market in the next 18 months due to a return of business confidence and a flight of new tenants from the suburbs into the city.

The US Justice Department plans to use its tentative $US13 billion ($13.5 billion) settlement with JPMorgan Chase as a blueprint for similar deals with other banks in probes related to bad mortgages and the 2008 financial crisis.

Global surfwear label Rip Curl has ridden a wave of improving retail trading conditions from America to Indonesia as well as the benefits from a restructure in 2012 to swing back to profitability. It reported an after-tax profit of $14.12 million for fiscal 2013.

Southern Cross received a first strike at its shareholders' meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday with more than 25 per cent of shareholders rejecting its remuneration report. Investors also recorded a strong protest vote against the re-election of directors.

The country's biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, has been paying banned financial planner Don Nguyen an income of tens of thousands of dollars a year since he was allowed to resign in 2009 amid an investigation that ultimately cost the bank tens of millions of dollars in compensation to his clients.

The "too big to fail" status of Australia's major banks should be scrutinised in the forthcoming review of the financial system, ME Bank chief executive Jamie McPhee says.