Beleaguered APN News & Media, the Australasian publisher of the New Zealand Herald, has increased write-downs on the value of goodwill and its newspaper mastheads in its end of year result, to produce a net loss to Dec. 31 to A$455.8 million. The decision to add a further A$151 million on non-cash impairments to the A$485 million already announced at …

Specialty chemicals maker Nuplex Industries missed expectations as its net profit more than halved and the company cut its forecast for annual earnings, blaming the strength of the currency and weak trading conditions in Australia and Europe. Net profit sank to $11.5 million, or 5.8 cents per share, in the six months ended Dec. 31 from $24.1 million, or 12.3 …

Finished wood products manufacturer Tenon says it’s on the cusp of profitability as the prolonged slump in the US housing market comes to an end, but its cost-cutting and efficiency investments in New Zealand have been completely eroded by the high kiwi dollar. Tenon reported a reduced US$2 million loss in the six months to Dec. 31, down from US$6 …

Snakk Media, the latest brainchild of Hyperfactory co-founder Derek Handley, will list next month on the stock exchange’s small-cap bourse as a pre-cursor to a capital raising. The Auckland-based company, which aggregates publishers’ ad space on mobile devices and matches it to advertisers’ demand, will list on the NZAX on March 6 in a compliance listing, allowing future capital raising, …

Westpac Banking Corp’s New Zealand unit lifted first-quarter earnings 9.7 percent as it widened its interest rate margins, although its bottom line was eroded by unrealised changes in the value of its financial instruments. Profit after tax and before fair value movements climbed to $159 million in the three months ended Dec. 31 from $145 million a year earlier, according …

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated from a five-year high as disappointing US housing numbers failed to offer confidence. In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.06 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.42 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.55 percent. The S&P 500 yesterday closed at 1,530.94 the highest …

New Zealand shares fell, led by Fletcher Building after the biggest company on the NZX 50 Index posted first-half earnings highlighting tough times in Australia. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare jumped after unexpectedly lifting its guidance. The NZX 50 fell 29.97 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4214.24. Within the index, 25 stocks fell, 16 rose and nine were unchanged. Turnover was …

The New Zealand dollar shed more than half a US cent after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler outlined the central bank’s criteria to intervene in currency markets, and said he was prepared to act when those were met. The kiwi fell to 84.04 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 84.61 cents immediately before Wheeler’s speech and down from 84.37 …

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler has told manufacturers he will intervene in currency markets if the circumstances will let him smooth the peaks and troughs, though he can’t set the level of the currency. The kiwi dropped half a US cent after the speech’s release. In a speech entitled, ‘manufacturing decline not just a dollar story’, Wheeler told the New …

Receivers for the collapsed Mainzeal Property and Construction say they hope to see work resume or responsibility returned to clients “in the near future” on the numerous projects that stopped in their tracks three weeks ago, when the receivership was announced. The second largest construction firm in the country, Mainzeal announced its receivership on Waitangi Day, Feb 6. The collapse …