Insights

Raphael Geminder's packaging business, Pact Group, plans to raise $649 million under its initial public offering. In a prospectus lodged with ASIC, Pact will sell shares at $3.80 each. On listing, Mr Geminder will remain a key shareholder with a 40 per cent stake. Pact

Faced with deep-seated resistance to its planned $3.4 billion takeover of GrainCorp, US grains trader Archer Daniels Midland has upped the ante.

Regional Express has warned that the operating environment is "so bad" in the domestic air travel market that many regional airlines will go bust over the next two years.

Archer Daniels Midland wants to take everything but politics off the table as the deadline for a foreign investment decision on its $3.4 billion takeover offer for GrainCorp approaches, and it made a good fist of it on Wednesday.

The Reserve Bank will ease interest rates again as Australia becomes the only developed country other than Japan to experience slowing growth and the dollar weakens to US85¢ by the end of next year, Goldman Sachs analysts believe.

Where else but Queensland? Bank of Queensland's new chairman, Roger Davis, obviously knew which credentials to present when he chaired his first AGM in Brissie on Wednesday.

Bank of Queensland has called on the government to consider whether Australia's big four banks are "too big to fail", as part of its inquiry into the financial system.

Falling commodity prices and rising costs have resulted in the lowest spending on new resource projects in more than a decade, with many projects either stalled or shelved.

Treasury Wine Estates, the world's biggest winemaker, has sought an injunction in the Supreme Court of Victoria against lawyer turned class-action specialist Mark Elliott to stop him accessing its shareholder register.

The powerful $1.75 trillion superannuation industry says it will continue to fight the federal government's plans to scrap payments to the super accounts of millions of low-paid people.

The sharemarket finished lower on Wednesday, with sharp losses among resource and energy stocks after a fall in commodity prices.

Increased investor optimism since the federal election has not been matched with earnings recovery, as the Australian sharemarket continues to look expensive.

Murray Goulburn is urging the Abbott government to halt Saputo's bid to control Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, saying the Canadian dairy giant has ''misinformed'' shareholders.

'Modest Rog' a maroon marvel

It's a public relations nightmare: selling the market a story that a chief executive leaving "immediately" is all about expediency and mutual interest.

Leighton Holdings is sitting on internal advice that warns its troubled Middle Eastern joint venture will struggle to recover all of the $1.1 billion it claims to be owed for construction work.