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Turners & Growers, the fruit marketer controlled by Germany’s BayWa Aktiengesellschaft, has confirmed acquisition discussions with Hawke’s Bay orchard and packaging company Apollo Apples as it announces its new strategy for growth. In a statement to the NZX the Auckland-based company confirmed a media report that it was in talks with Apollo, but said “discussions may not ultimately lead to …

Wool Equities, which manufactures wool for its grower shareholders, and Primary Wool Cooperative, a farmer-owned joint venture with wool broker Elders, agreed to continue to progress talks about a possible merger to boost returns after an initial meeting this week. The boards of Wool Equities, with 9,500 farmer shareholders, and Primary Wool, owned by about 1,200 farmers, met on Wednesday …

The Commerce Commission has outlined its proposed process to determine pricing for Chorus’s regulated copper network, and hopes to achieve a result by December when reduced prices are scheduled to kick in for the network operator. The regulator today released a process and issues paper on how it will determine the final pricing principle for Chorus’s unbundled bitstream access services, …

The level of activity on the NZX grew for a 17th month in January, though the value of transactions was lower than the same month last year. The total number of trades rose 43 percent to 98,903 in January, with the daily average at 4,710, according to NZX’s monthly shareholder metrics. The total value traded fell 8 percent to $2.1 …

The New Zealand dollar rose to a week high as sentiment improved, turning investor attention to riskier assets such as the kiwi. The kiwi touched 82.82 US cents this morning, and was at 82.68 cents at 8am in Wellington from 82.38 cents at 5pm yesterday. Concern about emerging market weakness has abated, pushing up European and US equities, US interest …

Tower chairman Michael Stiassny took a swipe at Australian rival Insurance Australia Group’s bid to buy Wesfarmers’ trans-Tasman underwriting businesses, saying the market dominance creates “significant risk.” IAG has sought clearance from Australasian antitrust regulators to buy the WFI and Lumley Insurance brands as well as a 10-year distribution agreement with Coles for A$1.85 billion, something Tower’s Stiassny says is …

New Zealand agribusinesses looking for investors will be able to turn to crowdfunding once new legislation comes into effect in April. The agribusiness-focused crowdfunding platform, Snowball Effect, is the first of its kind in New Zealand, and intends to give small to medium sized businesses access through their website to funding from investors looking for equity. Snowball Effect’s launch coincides …

Auckland’s average house price slipped in January, reflecting a seasonal slowdown following the Christmas and New Year holiday period. The average sale price fell 7.6 percent to $647,207 from a record in December, although it is 7.7 percent ahead of January last year, according to realtor Barfoot & Thompson. The median price fell 7.8 percent to $580,000 from December. “This …

Vodafone New Zealand is likely to target Telecom Corp’s remaining Sky Network Television customers to increase its market share as the agreement between Telecom and Sky comes to an end in the next few months. The decade-long agreement for Telecom to resell Sky’s pay TV service will end May 31, the Auckland-based companies said today. Telecommunication providers sell products such …

David Ellis, the biggest spender at New Zealand’s premiere Karaka horse sales this year, says the tax department is stifling new investment in the bloodstock industry with its interpretation of depreciation rules. The value of yearling sales at Karaka in South Auckland have fallen in each of the past six years, reaching $69.7 million last month, down from $111.2 million …