The impact of drought in February, March and April on dairy farms was greater than Fonterra Cooperative Group anticipated, with milk collection down 0.5 percent in the first 11 months of the season. The Auckland-based company collected 1.414 million kilograms of milk solids in the latest 11 months, from 1.421 million kgMS in the same period a year earlier, it …

Google New Zealand, the local service hub of the world’s biggest search engine company, stacked on workers last year to keep pace with an online advertising market that’s growing at the expense of newspapers and television. Employee benefits jumped 76 percent to $4.2 million in calendar 2012, the company’s financial statements show. Service revenue, which is essentially payments from the …

The New Zealand dollar, which has gained 11 percent from its lows a year ago on a trade-weighted basis, is “significantly overvalued,” Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler says. He made the comments at a media briefing in Wellington following the release of the bank’s six-monthly financial stability report, which highlighted the risks of an overheating housing market. The bank expects …