| Pressure is growing on ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. to further slash the outgoing chief’s pay packet after a series of missteps in its markets unit. Two influential proxy advisory firms and a body representing Australian pension funds advised investors to vote against the lender’s executive compensation plan at its annual general meeting on Thursday in Melbourne. Australia’s stock market looks primed for another strong showing in 2025, as the likelihood of easy central bank policy boosts sentiment and China’s stimulus pledges support miners. Technology and financial stocks have led this year’s advance, with a banking gauge set for its best showing since 2009. Investment chiefs at big Australian pension funds are honing in on private assets for next year as a key source of growth for the nation’s booming A$4.1 trillion ($2.6 trillion) industry. Aware Super, Australian Retirement Trust, UniSuper and Colonial First State — which oversee more than A$800 billion combined — all said they’re looking to increase unlisted market exposure in 2025. Schroders Plc is closing its Australian private-debt business, citing intense competition for fund raising and sourcing investments. “We believe the efforts of our private assets team are better directed towards other areas,” Schroders Australia CEO and chief investment officer Simon Doyle said.
Australia’s budget is expected to slip deeper into deficit in the years ahead due to rising government spending and a weakening in key trade partner China. A quarter century after Nissan Motor Co.’s bailout by Renault SA, six years after the shock arrest of savior-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn and five years after it was first proposed, the troubled Japanese automaker might find a permanent ally in the form of Honda Motor Co., writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Gearoid Reidy. | 
