Business Desk

The New Zealand dollar touched a fresh five-year low after dairy prices fell to a six-year low in the GlobalDairyTrade auction overnight, paced by whole milk powder, the nation’s key export commodity. The kiwi touched 67.27 US cents and was trading at 67.41 cents at 8am in Wellington, from 67.95 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index dropped to 70.73 from …

Dairy product prices continued their slide, paced by whole milk power, in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, weakening to the lowest level in six years. The GDT average winning prices dropped 5.9 percent to US$2,276 from US$2,409 at the previous auction two weeks ago. It was the lowest level since July 2009. Some 33,200 tonnes of product was sold, the highest …

Veteran corporate raider Ron Brierley is bringing his latest investment vehicle, Mercantile Investment, to the NZX, with a listing scheduled for next week. The Sydney-based investment firm has been approved by stock market operator NZX for a compliance listing on July 6, it said in a statement to the ASX yesterday. The move makes it easier for New Zealand investors …

New Zealand’s largest primary sector businesses, including meat companies Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group, seafood groups Sanford and Sealord, and milk processors Fonterra Cooperative Group and Miraka, are on a bootcamp in the US this week to work together on ways to add value to the country’s primary goods exports. The group of 50, which includes chief executives of …

Kathmandu shares soared to a four-month high after Briscoe Group acquired a 19.9 percent stake and said it plans to make a full takeover, raising the prospect that managing director Rod Duke could use his skills to revive the struggling outdoor equipment and clothing chain. Kathmandu stock rose as much as 29 percent to $1.80, the price Briscoe paid institutions for most of the …

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 …

Pushpay Holdings has confirmed it is eligible for a $960,000 research and development grant from Callaghan Innovation that will help mobile payments app developer scale up the platform that allows US church congregations to easily make donations. “This funding provides additional resources to deliver scale and growth in the Pushpay platform through the development of new features, new markets, and scalable engineering processes and …

The latest papal encyclical is “offensive”, “infuriating” and “drivel” in its commentary on the operation of markets, says Oliver Hartwich, a self-professed Catholic and executive director of the New Zealand Initiative, a libertarian think tank. The Laudato Si encyclical – a communication to bishops setting out the Pope’s views on a chosen set of issues – was published by Pope Francis to global …

Ngati Whatua, a member of the Tamaki Makaurau Collective, has filed a statement of claim in the High Court at Auckland over the government’s decision not to offer land earmarked for housing development to the iwi first. The iwi is seeking a judicial review of recent decisions around the Auckland Crown Land Programme, and Moire Road property in particular, it said in …

New Zealand’s 2014/15 wool season ended this week with what is expected to be the smallest percentage of the clip sold through auctions in at least seven years, as more farmers were attracted to the premium prices and protection from commodity price volatility offered in private sales. The auction system’s share of wool is expected to continue to shrink. An estimated 464,000 bales are expected to come …