Livestock Improvement Corp, a farmer cooperative that sells bull semen and provides a dairy genetics database, posted a 10 percent gain in first-half profit on increased demand for its products and services.  Profit rose to $29.7 million in the six months ended Nov. 30, from $26.9 million a year earlier, the Hamilton-based company said in a statement. Sales climbed 18 percent to $159 million. …

“Governments that understand the need for reform must find a way of countering this lazy, reactive style of politics, just as John Key’s government has done in New Zealand.” In its first two terms the Key administration made an effort to reduce the size of government, enhance the scope for growth and tackle seemingly intractable problems in tax, welfare and …

Michael Kidd, a former partner of high-flying businessman Alex van Heeren in ventures including the Huka Lodge, is seeking a US$25 million interim payment in a long-running dispute over the division of assets when their 16-year business partnership ended in 1991. In an interlocutory hearing in the High Court at Auckland, South Africa-based Kidd is seeking both the interim payment and a …