The New Zealand dollar is heading for a 1.8 percent fall against the greenback as optimism about the health of the global economy fades, sapping demand for risk-sensitive assets. The kiwi rose to 84.34 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 84.11 cents at 8am, down from 84.52 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index fell to 77.81 at 5pm from 78 …

Meridian Energy and the owners of its largest customer, the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, are continuing to talk after an intense three days’ face to face negotiation last week, with parties in both Wellington and Sydney crunching numbers on possible new deals. Neither side will comment on the record, but BusinessDesk understands efforts to find common ground on a new …

Contact Energy shares dropped almost 6 percent in early NZX trading, with the company saying it was “hard to see” how it would have justified investing $2.5 billion in new power plants if the Labour-Greens electricity policy had been in place. In a statement not issued to the NZX but received by BusinessDesk, Contact chief executive Dennis Barnes says “under …