Diligent Board Member Services, the governance software developer, says it won’t meet a Dec. 12 deadline to release its first half results and now expects then to be as late as Feb. 28, when it is due to publish its full-year report. The company said NZX has indicated it won’t suspend trading in Diligent’s shares provided it meets the new …

Godfrey Hirst, which acquired failed carpet maker Feltex in 2006, has pulled a $50 million dividend from its New Zealand business while reporting annual sales growth and one-time gains from asset sales and purchases. Profit was $10.8 million in the year ended June 30 for Hirst’s Avon Pacific Holdings unit, from $10.3 million a year earlier, according to the Auckland-based …

– State-owned lender Kiwibank is back within the terms of its bank registration after the departure of New Zealand Post director Murray Gribben evened up the number of independent directors on the board. Gribben resigned from the boards of New Zealand Post and Kiwibank on Nov. 30 to take up a new role as chief executive of Crown Irrigation Investments, …

– Fewer Auckland houses are selling at auction, total sales were down 7.1 percent in November against October, and homes worth less than $500,000 are selling more slowly, says Auckland real estate agent Barfoot & Thompson. However, managing director Peter Thompson says these trends are not enough to say the Reserve Bank’s lending restrictions on highly leveraged borrowers are having …

NZX cash trading volumes soared in November, the 15th straight monthly gain, in a period that included the stock exchange’s biggest ever trading day accounting for almost a fifth of monthly turnover. The total number of trades rose to 141,143 in November from 114,334 in October, and was up 75 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to …

Shares of partially privatised power company MightyRiverPower dropped below $2 for the first time since listing at $2.50 in May, as Finance Minister Bill English outlined reasons for cutting the government’s expected proceeds from its asset sales programme. MRP hit $1.99 in early trading on the NZX, while instalment receipts for Meridian Energy dropped to 93.5 cents, compared with their …

NZX-listed high value timber products exporter Tenon is to explore ways of enticing US investors to back the stock as the American housing market starts to lift the company’s earnings after a seven year slog through the sub-prime mortgage and global financial crises. Chairman Luke Moriarty told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Auckland the company would also start …

– The government is expecting to reap between $700 million and $1.1 billion from the sale next year of 49 percent of Genesis Energy, the only state-owned power company not to be partially privatised so far. Finance Minister Bill English told the finance and expenditure select committee this morning that the government would be formally revising downwards its estimate of …

The New Zealand dollar gained against the greenback and the Australian dollar on signs prices of the nation’s commodities remain elevated and as traders anticipate US data for clues to the end of monetary stimulus. The kiwi dollar rose to 82.54 US cents from 81.79 cents at 5pm in Wellington yesterday. It rose to 90.26 Australian cents, from 90.01 cents. …

Prices of dairy products staged the biggest gain in five months, pushing the average price to a two-month high, as rennet casein climbed to a record. The GDT Price Index, previously known as the GDT-TWI Price Index, rose 3.9 percent compared to the last sale two weeks ago. The average winning price was US$4,973 a tonne compared to US$4,805 a …