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 …

The New Zealand dollar fell as weaker US data and disappointing earnings stoked concerns global growth may be slowing and weighed on stocks and risk appetite. The kiwi fell to 84.11 US cents from 84.51 cents at 5pm in Wellington yesterday. The trade-weighted index fell to 77.65 from 77.99. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s business activity index fell to 1.3 …