Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, has scaled back its offer to farmer shareholders to sell the economic rights of their shares into the Shareholders’ Fund. The NZX-listed Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund, which gives outside investors access to the dairy exporter’s dividend stream, will buy almost 60 million so-called ‘wet’ shares worth $475 million at $7.92 apiece, with those …

he New Zealand dollar surged to its highest in four and a half years against its Australian counterpart as New Zealand’s rising interest rates and growth outlook increase the lure of the nation’s currency. The kiwi advanced to 84 Australian cents from 83.58 at 5pm on Friday. It earlier touched 84.25 cents, the highest since January 2009. The trade-weighted index …

Investors will eye Federal Reserve officials Eric Rosengren and Sandra Pianalto in the coming day for further clues on the timing of a taper of bond buying under the US central bank’s quantitative easing policy. In a bid to bolster growth by keeping interest rates low, the Fed has been pursuing QE, sometimes called printing money, by acquiring bonds at …