The Financial Review's Simon Evans reminds us that Reliance Worldwide's chairman and founder Jonathan Munz sold his remaining 10 per cent of the company for $367 million on February 27, two days after its half-year presentation. Mr Munz also resigned from the board and left on 4 March owning not a single stock.

He has since been replaced with Computershare's Stuart Crosby, who has been a non-executive director since April 2016.

Reliance Worldwide shares are currently at $3.99, which is 13.5 per cent lower than Friday's close. The stock did fall as much as 26 per cent in early trading to $3.40.

The biggest shareholder at the moment is Bennelong Funds Management with 12.2 per cent of stock. Firetrail Investors took out a 5 per cent position on 17 April.

Lending statistics have come in worse than anticipated with a decline of 3.7 per cent seasonally adjusted for March compared to expectations of a rise of about 0.5 per cent. And it comes after a rise of 2.2 per cent in February.

Lending to households in March was around $30.7 billion, which is lower than it was in 2015 at around $38 billion.

Lending fell across all components in seasonally adjusted terms with the largest falls in personal finance, down 11.2 per cent, and owner occupier dwellings, down 3.4 per cent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported this morning.

Lending to businesses fell 1.5 per cent

Gas pipeliner APA has announced Rob Wheals as the group's new chief executive, replacing founder Mick McCormack, who will retire in July. Rob Wheals is currently APA's head of transmission and has been with the company since 2008. Shares are currently down 0.3 per cent at $10.17 compared to a 0.4 per cent drop in the broader market.

"It is a great honour to not only lead APA but to do so following the outstanding leadership of Mick McCormack," Mr Wheals said. "I am picking up the baton of a business that is in a strong position."

Mr McCormack had announced his intention to retire at the end of 2018.

He said he had planned to retire earlier but a $13 billion takeover bid from Hong Kong-based utility and infrastructure firm CKI, a major rival, had "got in the way".

I've just had a quick chat to incoming Eclipx Group chief executive Julian Russell, who is hitting the phones today outlining his plans to shareholders and journalists to simplifly the company.

Mr Russell says he has been around Eclipx Group since its IPO, which was in April 2015 at a price of $2.30. He has been a financial advisor at UBS, but has left that role to take on the CEO job.

"I have left a role at UBS to take on this role because of my deep understanding and belief in this company," he tells me. "I was keen to get stuck in."

"I consider [new chief operating officer] Bevan Guest to be my partner because my strategy is to get back to our core business of fleet and novated. Bevan and I are going to work together to re-focus on that business."

Global property giant Lendlease (ASX:LLC) has told shareholders, through an ASX note, that it has not has received any approach for a potential takeover.
There was speculation in the The Australian newspaper regarding potential corporate activity from the Japanese giant Mitsui. That saw the share price bounce up 8.8 per cent to $13.87 when trading resumed this morning.
"Lendlease confirms it has not received any such approach," the ASX statement says.
It has been a tough few months for Lendlease which is selling its troubled engineering and services division and is now the subject of a class action over the write down last November in that division.

The Financial Review's Simon Evans reports the new chief executive of Eclipx group is UBS investment banker Julian Russell. Until last week, Mr Russell had been the co-head of the financial institutions group at UBS and a long-time adviser to the Eclipx board. The management overhaul comes six weeks after a proposed merger with rival McMillan Shakespeare was officially dumped, even though it had been looking very shaky for many weeks before that official termination.

Eclpix shares are down 3.6 per cent to 93 cents in today's session, the lowest price since Easter. Shares were trading at $1.88 before the McMillan Shakespeare merger fell apart and were trading at an average of $2.38 in the past 12 months.

The Eclipx board has also created a position of chief commercial officer, which will be filled by Bevan Guest, an internal promotion from his role as managing director of Fleet Australia, one of the businesses Eclipx operates. Mr Russell said he would be pursuing a back-to-basics approach built around the core fleet management and novated leasing operations. Eclipx is part-way through trying to sell the Grays online and Right2Drive businesses.

Read the full piece from Simon Evans here.

Mr Russell is calling investors and journalists this morning to discuss his plans, so we may have more details later.

Commonwealth Bank's third quarter profit plunged 28 per cent to $1.7 billion in the three months to March, as it was hit by hefty costs from compensating customers. Shares are down 2.6 per cent in early trading to a four-week low of $73.46. Given the size of Commonwealth Bank on Australia's index, it has taken 13 points off the market, which is currently down by 19.7 points at 6291.

In a trading update on Monday, CBA said the slump in earnings, compared with the six months to December, was caused by $714 million in provisions that it took for customer remediation, mainly in its wealth division.

"We are committed to improving outcomes for our customers, addressing past failings and compensating customers quickly," chief executive Matt Comyn said. "The additional $714 million in pre-tax customer remediation provisions taken in the quarter demonstrates this commitment, and builds on a range of other initiatives to achieve better customer outcomes, including removing and reducing fees for our customers."

CBA said its cumulative spending and provisions on customer remediation, which includes compensation payments and related administrative costs, had now hit $2.17 billion. Mr Comyn acknowledged the hit to its bottom line, but pointed to growth that included a 2.5 per cent gain in its mortgage book over the quarter, a 2.8 per cent rise in household deposits, and a 2.3 increase in business credit.

The S&P/ASX 200 has dropped about 24 points on opening to 6287 points.

Reliance Worldwide is down 16.3 per cent already to $3.87 and Eclipx Group is down 5.2 per cent to 91 cents.

Banks are doing poorly, with Commonwealth bank down nearly 3 per cent to $73.20.

Early risers include Lendlease Group, up 7.3 per cent to $13.66, and Galaxy Resources is up 3.6 per cent to $2.33.

Reliance Worldwide has downgraded its full year earnings forecast from between $280 million and $290 million down to between $260 million and $270 million. It also advises the increased tariff on Chinese goods will force it to raise prices in the US and consider manufacturing in the US or another country.

"As the second half of 2018-19 is progressing, each of Reliance Worldwide's operating segements is being affected by market-specific factors which are negatively impacting performance and results," the company says this morning.

One problem is not enough cold snaps in southern USA, where uninsulated pipes crack and need replacing. Another is its channel partners are carrying less inventory.

"Reliance Worldwide estimates the lack of a modest freeze event has reduced net sales by the order of $12 million to $15 million in 2018-19."

• Fonterra has sold its New Zealand ice cream company Tip Top to global ice cream company Froneri for $380 million. There will be some one-off costs, but Fonterra tells the market this morning the $380 million price tag represents a gain of $100 million above book value "which would have a positive six cents per share impact on earnings".
• a2 Milk non-executive director Peter Hinton, who is also the partner of the company's founder Dr Corran McLachlan, is retiring. He will be replaced by New Zealand director Pip Greenwood.
• News Corp releases Foxtel data showing subscriber numbers have dropped from 2.4 million in mid-2017 to 2.2 million in December 2018.