TrustPower, the utility controlled by Infratil, reported a 6 percent fall in underlying annual earnings as it went faced a tougher environment with dwindling customer numbers and thinner margins. The shares gained. Underlying earnings, which strips out one-off impairment charges and changes in the fair value of assets, fell to $127.3 million, or 40.5 cents per share, in the 12 …

The Serious Fraud Office investigation into failed company Hanover Finance cost the regulator about $1.1 million. The SFO spent about $600,000 on its own staff and overheads and a further $505,111 on advisers during the 32-month investigation, it said in a statement today. The office last week said it won”t lay charges against any of the firm”s directors or owners …

Warehouse Group, the country’s biggest listed retailer, boosted third-quarter sales at its Red Sheds and stationery outlets, and has kept its annual guidance unchanged. Sales, excluding recent acquisitions Noel Leeming and Torpedo7, rose 6.2 percent to $418.7 million in the three months ended April 28 from the same period a year earlier, the Auckland-based retailer said in a statement. Including …