Fears the big power companies will stifle small competitors is prompting the Electricity Authority to mount an investigation into the practice of customer “saves” and “win-backs” to prevent customers switching provider. The regulator issued figures showing that some small retailers, particularly Pulse Utilities (Just Energy) and Hunet Energy, which targets Asian customers on Auckland’s North Shore, have been particularly hard …

Auckland International Airport, the nation’s busiest gateway, had its Standard & Poor’s outlook revised to ‘stable’ from ‘positive’ while its A-/A-2 credit rating was affirmed following plans to increase debt to return $454 million to shareholders. “The increase in debt will drive a relative weakening of the key financial metrics over the short term, in relation to our prior expectations, …

Fletcher Building, New Zealand’s largest building company, spent about $4 million and took almost two months to clean up and replace the roof of its Christchurch plasterboard factory that contained asbestos. The Winstone Wallboards factory, which manufactures GIB plasterboard, was reopened on Oct. 21 following its closure on Aug. 27 after traces of asbestos were found during preparations for the …