The government doesn’t want to spend any more money or stay any longer in the build of New Zealand’s ultra-fast broadband network for fear it might “stuff it”, says Finance Minister Bill English. The government wants to extend the UFB programme to 80 percent of the nation’s population from its original 75 percent target and has also expressed a desire to …

Andrew Robinson, a struck off financial adviser and former director of Strategic Planning Group, has been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to fraud charges earlier this year. Robinson was sentenced in the High Court in Auckland today, having pleaded guilty to five charges of theft by a person in a special relationship and one charge of dishonestly using …

Federated Farmers says top management should be leaving Fonterra Cooperative Group if results don’t start improving in the next couple of years. The comments, from Fed Farmers dairy chair Andrew Hoggard were in response to the confirmation today by the world’s largest dairy exporter that it will cut 523 jobs to save up to $60 a million a year on its payroll …

LanzaTech New Zealand, the NZ-founded carbon recycling company, narrowed its annual loss as the company shifts into commercialisation from its previous development phase. The company reported a loss of $34.7 million in calendar 2014, smaller than the loss of $40.5 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with the Companies Office. Including $2.8 million of exchange differences on foreign …

Four of the Hanover directors and promoters involved in an $18 million settlement with the Financial Markets Authority say it’s the best outcome for investors and taxpayers, and the regulator would have failed in court. In a written statement, Mark Hotchin, Greg Muir, Tipene O’Regan and Bruce Gordon said they decided to settle because of the cost and burden of litigation …

Hanover Finance former shareholder Eric Watson isn’t contributing to the $18 million settlement reached between the Financial Markets Authority and directors and promoters of the group just two weeks before a civil claim was due to be heard in court. His name is omitted from the settlement agreement which lists contributions from the other five directors and promoters – Mark …

The Financial Markets Authority has settled a civil claim against the directors and promoters of failed finance company Hanover Finance for $18 million just two weeks before it was due to be heard in court. The money will be distributed to eligible investors who invested in the Hanover Finance Ltd (HFL), Hanover Capital Ltd (HCL), United Finance Ltd (UFL), in …

Disgruntled Alliance Group shareholders say they hope to have the support from 5 percent of their number within the next 10 days that’s required to force a special meeting to discuss the potential benefits and risks of a merger with Silver Fern Farms. Last week Silver Fern Farms shareholders crossed the 5 percent threshold to force a special meeting of their meat cooperative …

New Zealand’s five major banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank and Westpac) have continued to show strong profits and lending growth in the first quarter of the 2015 however lending margins are beginning to contract due to stiff competition. Net profit before tax increased by $94 million or 5.9% to $1.69 billion for the first quarter of 2015, compared to $1.59 …

Research out today shows that while getting a government research and development grant almost doubles the likelihood a company will introduce a world-first innovation, there’s also evidence Kiwi firms are not good at commercialising their clever ideas. The government’s Business Growth Agenda targets increasing business expenditure on R&D, which is low by OECD standards, to 1 percent of gross domestic product by …