PGG Wrightson managing director George Gould will step down from New Zealand’s biggest rural technology and services firm after helping refocus the company. Gould previously headed Pyne Gould Guinness and was appointed to the top job at the larger company in February 2011 to help stabilise it as it exited non-core activities. He will leave Aug. 31, the Christchurch-based company …

Moody’s Investors Service has affirmed state-controlled carrier Air New Zealand’s credit rating and revised its outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ on the airline’s efforts to deal with high fuel prices. Auckland-based Air NZ kept its Baa3 senior unsecured issue rating, and was taken off a ‘negative’ outlook after a “rapid response” to escalating fuel prices and dwindling demand, the rating …

Metlifecare, the retirement village operator whose shares have jumped 60 percent in the past year, plans to raise up to $80 million in a placement and share purchase plan as it rolls out its expansion plans. The company’s shares were halted for the placement of $70 million of shares to institutions. It will also raise up to $10 million in …