Insights

Saputo is risking its reputation as a "disciplined acquirer" as the battle for Warrnambool Cheese & Butter enters the "silly zone", according to Canadian analysts.

Travel insurer Cover-More has become the latest private equity-owned company to join the 2013 float rush, announcing plans to raise $521 million in an initial public offering later this month.

A range of soft business indicators and another month of benign inflation are not expected to reduce the big odds of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank at its last meeting of the year.

The financial planning industry is poised for more change because the Coalition intends to wind back rules introduced after the Storm Financial and Trio Capital collapses, including a requirement that planners act in their clients' best interests.

Chris Gibson on the pros and cons of a $650 million deal.

The sharemarket fell to its lowest level in six weeks despite the release of better-than-expected economic data domestically and in China.

Foxtel will start selling retail broadband and telephone services for the first time next year after signing a commercial deal with one of its parent companies, Telstra.

ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft has blasted recent criticism of the corporate regulator as a "smear" on its staff and the agency's "good work", ahead of a Senate inquiry into its operations.

The strong run for Australia's housing market may be beginning to wane, as the growth in dwelling values slows to a rate not seen in half a year.

National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster has demolished the argument put forward by retailers that scrapping the $1000 GST-free threshold on imported goods would trigger an $800 million windfall for state revenues, arguing it would fail to raise even half that.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sought to dampen expectations that the government will offer financial help to Qantas to preserve its investment-grade credit rating, saying the airline has yet to tell politicians exactly what it wants.

Local councils that lost millions of dollars after buying toxic investments through Lehman Brothers have finally reached a settlement with liquidators of the failed investment bank.

Grocery and liquor wholesaler Metcash believes it can grow the independent retailer sector in the face of intensified competition from the majors, Woolworths and Coles, despite its flagship food business losing market share to them.

The government will need a full-time workforce of 3000 engineers plus contractors to achieve a full fibre-to-the-node rollout by mid-2020. That figure is based on Britain's Openreach rollout of 300 street cabinets a week, says Informa senior analyst Tony Brown. bit.ly/Iyyh4P

Indian outsourcer Infosys has opened a new Sydney office to cope with growth of more than 500 per cent over the past five years. It expects to hire 85 employees in NSW as well as short-term imported specialists. The company says it employs about 2600 people in Australia and New Zealand.

Forrester Research has forecast a modest increase of 2.4 per cent in overall technology spending in Australia in 2014. Senior analyst Tim Sheedy says Australian chief information officers have managed to reduce operational costs and are pumping the savings back into IT.