Guinness Peat Group has hired a London-based brokerage to promote Coats as a standalone business and begun the search for a chairman for what will be its remaining asset. GPG is exiting its portfolio of investments, apart from Coats, and will return capital to shareholders as it transforms into the thread-making business. GPG chairman Rob Campbell doesn’t plan to lead …

The spread of computer chips into products as diverse as washing machines, toasters and medical equipment is forcing Statistics New Zealand to overhaul its biennial technology survey. Trading in information and communication technology goods and services was worth $23 billion in 2012, up 17 percent from the last survey in 2010, according to the government statistician. Of that, $10.1 billion …

Cut-price petrol retailer Gull Petroleum has won the right to appeal to the Supreme Court in its stoush with the Customs Department over the rate of excise duty it should charge on butane added to petrol arriving at the wharf in New Zealand. The addition of locally produced butane effectively “waters down” the potency of Gull petrol, but allows the …