Rangatira, the Wellington-based investor that is adding the Rainbow’s End theme park to its portfolio, reported a 39 percent decline in first-half earnings, reflecting the ‘lumpy’ timing of work at its half-owned Contract Resources. Profit fell to $3 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from $4.4 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement. It kept …

Pyne Gould Corp, which sold its corporate trust unit September, is seeking returns of more than 15 percent over the next decade and doesn’t expect to ever pay dividends, according to chairman Bryan Mogridge. The company, 77 percent owned by managing director George Kerr, expects to sell its Perpetual trust and wealth management units before the year’s end, leaving it …

Sanford, the country’s second-biggest fishing company by sales, fell 6.7 percent after it took charges on restructuring its Coromandel mussel farm and legal fees for its unsuccessful defence of claims it dumped waste oil off American Samoa. Net profit fell to $20.9 million, or 22.3 cents per share, in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from $22.3 million, or 23.8 …

The controversial oil and gas discovery technique known as fracking is safe when conducted to best practice standards, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, in an interim report However, she will spend the next six months assessing whether New Zealand’s “fragmented” regulatory system is up to scratch and lays out seven recommendations in the meantime relating to …

New Zealand Oil & Gas has agreed to acquire interests in three offshore Taranaki permits from ASX-listed Octanex for US$12.5 million plus a share of seismic costs. The company will pay US$12.5 million for a 12.5 percent interest in PE51906 which holds the Makatu prospect and is expected to be drilled in the second half of next year. Octanex will …

Fonterra Cooperative Group priced its units at $5.50 apiece, the top end of the range proposed in a bookbuild, with strong global demand ensuring 42 percent of the fund has been sold to overseas investors. Units in the $525 million Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund are scheduled to begin trading on the NZX at noon on Friday, giving liquidity to the Trading …

New Zealand won’t sign up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal unless it includes an agreement to progressively abolish tariffs on agricultural products exported to North America, Prime Minister John Key said. With international negotiators for the trade pact due in New Zealand next week for the next round of talks on the TPP, Key also said it would …

High Court proceedings challenging the government’s partial privatisation of MightyRiverPower commenced this morning and immediately faced strong questioning from the presiding judge, Justice Ronald Young. Appearing for the Waikato River and Dams Claims Trust and the Poukani Claims Trust, Helen Cull QC argued that Maori claims to water and land rights could not be adequately protected once MRP was removed …

Fletcher Building, the biggest company on the NZX, expects operating earnings to grow by as much as 22 percent in the 2013 financial year as new home construction accelerates and the firm keeps a lid on costs. The shares rose to $7.65, their highest level since October last year. The Auckland-based company sees operating earnings of between $560 million and …

New Zealand’s manufacturing sector returned to a minor level of expansion in October, although the sector remains in a flat state, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI). The seasonally adjusted PMI for October was 50.5 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining).  This was 2.0 …