By Paul McBeth Sept. 18 (BusinessDesk) – Lines companies Buller Electricity and Pioneer Generation plan to mount a takeover of electricity retailer Pulse Energy, though haven’t settled on an offer price yet. Pulse Energy was told by its 56 percent shareholder Buller Electricity that the West Coast-based lines company will team up with Otago-based Pioneer to buy the remaining Pulse …

By Suze Metherell Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – Creditors of New Zealand’s failed state-owned coal miner Solid Energy have voted in favour of an orderly sell down over the next 2 1/2 years, rejecting a last minute foreign bidder’s request to delay the watershed meeting ahead of a possible buyout. Korda Mentha administrator Brendon Gibson said a move by Australian company Mach …

By Paul McBeth and Jonathan Underhill Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – Associate Finance Minister Paula Bennett says the government’s decision to reject the Overseas Investment Office’s recommendation on the sale of Lochinver Station to Shanghai Pengxin wasn’t political and ultimately she wasn’t convinced the deal provided enough benefit to New Zealand. The OIO had recommended to Bennett and Land Information Minister Louise Upston …

By Jonathan Underhill Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – The government has scuttled Shanghai Pengxin’s $88 million purchase of Lochinver Station, which it would have added to a portfolio including the Crafar farms, saying the transaction failed on the test of providing a substantial benefit to New Zealand. “After detailed and careful individual consideration, we are not satisfied there will be, or is likely …

By Paul McBeth Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s economy accelerated by less than expected in the second quarter, with agriculture and mining recovering from a weak start to the year. The kiwi dollar dropped almost half a US cent. Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the three months ended June 30, accelerating from a 0.2 percent pace in the March quarter …

By Pattrick Smellie Sept. 17 (BusinessDesk) – A New South Wales-based mining investor, Mach Energy, is expected to make an alternative bid for distressed state-owned coal miner Solid Energy at today’s ‘watershed’ meeting of creditors in Christchurch this morning. BusinessDesk reliably understands Mach will seek a 30 day delay to the vote scheduled at today’s meeting of Solid Energy creditors, …

Solid Energy’s banking backers can expect to get back between 35 cents and 40 cents in the dollar under a Deed of Company Arrangement that will allow the insolvent state-owned coal miner to be wound up and its saleable assets disposed of over the next two and a half years. A raft of banks, local authorities and businesses including Kiwirail, Fonterra …

The number of home sales fell 4.4 percent in August from July, while soaring on an annual basis, as the national median price steadied on a monthly reading, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. Auckland’s median price increased 0.7 percent in August to $740,000, and has surged 21 percent in the year. Some 7,766 homes sold …

NZX, New Zealand’s stock market operator, has accredited US-based Straits Financial to access its growing dairy derivatives market. Straits has been accredited as a general clearing, trading and advising participant for the NZX dairy derivatives market, the first US clearing member to receive approval since authorisation was granted from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in February 2014, Wellington-based NZX said in a …

By Fiona Rotherham Sept. 9 (BusinessDesk) – Fonterra Cooperative Group, the country’s largest milk processor, has confirmed it has put on hold a proposed coal mine at Mangatangi while it assesses its energy options. The Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA), which is trying to stop coal mining in New Zealand, said Fonterra sent a letter last week to local residents …