Chorus’s board will probably have to cut its return to shareholders with promising signs in a government review of telecommunications law still likely to leave a hole in the network operator’s earnings, according to a broker’s report. While viewing the prospect of direct intervention in copper line pricing as a positive Craigs Investment Partners has cut its recommendation on Chorus …

Meridian Energy has had to give up previously negotiated price increases and the government has chipped in with a $30 million “incentive payment” to keep the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter open until at least January 2017. Meridian chief executive Mark Binns announced the deal in a statement to the NZX, saying the renegotiated contract would “see a reduction in the …

ASX-listed fund manager Perpetual has used Fonterra Cooperative Group’s food scare to trawl for cheap units in the dairy exporter’s listed fund. Funds managed by Perpetual bought about 1.26 million units, or 1.17 percent, of Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund for some A$7.32 million on Aug. 5, when the price plunged in the first trading day after the dairy company said some …