Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, affirmed its milk payout forecast and lowered guidance for dividends, while posting a 16 percent drop in first-half profit it says reflected “tough conditions in dairy.” The forecast payout for the current season was affirmed at $4.70 per kilogram of milk solids, down from a record $8.40/kgMS last season, while guidance for dividends was …

MightyRiverPower, whose first half earnings slumped as it wrote down the value of assets and exited its international geothermal interests, said its gas-fired Southdown power station will close at the end of the year in response to growth in renewable generation. The 140-megawatt Southdown station in Auckland had played a small role in MightyRiverPower’s portfolio the past two years, representing just …

Hamish Bohannan has resigned from Bathurst Resources after five years leading a coal miner whose expansion has been put on hold pending a recovery in coal prices.   Bohannan joined Bathurst in 2008 and played a key role establishing the company as a coal producer and driving the heavily contested consenting process for its Escarpment project on the Denniston Plateau. The company has since restructured …