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The New Zealand dollar is heading for a 1.5 percent weekly drop against the greenback as a Malaysian passenger jet crash in rebel-held Ukraine and an Israeli ground invasion in Gaza sapped investors’ risk appetite in an environment where the local currency had already fallen out of favour. The kiwi fell to 86.78 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 88.10 cents on Friday in …

Ailing clothing retailer Postie Plus has been sold for an undisclosed sum as a going concern to Roan Ltd, a subsidiary of Pepkor, a South African-based investment group with clothing and footwear retail interests in Australia and Eastern Europe. News of the deal began to leak after staff received letters on Roan letterhead. Some 530 of the Auckland-based company’s 560 staff have …

New Zealand’s global innovation ranking has slipped from 17th to 18th, while Australia has jumped three places to 17th in rankings calculated for the 2014 Global Innovation Index, compiled by Cornell University. While New Zealand scores highly in areas such as political stability (3rd), investor protection (1st), effective government (9th) and regulatory quality (4th), the overall ranking is pulled down …

Wellington property investor Caniwi Capital has bought and leased back seven of  nine New Zealand properties housing Inghams Enterprises chicken farming operations in a $57 million deal that releases capital for Texas Pacific Group, the US private equity firm that paid A$880 million for the Australasian Inghams operation in March last year. The transaction represents the New Zealand leg of TPG’s …

Struck off financial adviser Andrew Robinson, who is separately accused of stealing investor funds, has been ordered to pay $2.56 million in damages plus costs to an investor over a series of negligent and misleading deals. In the Auckland High Court, Justice John Fogarty made the order against Robinson, a former Sunday Star-Times columnist and adviser to Neville Mace and his family trust, over “six disastrous …

ERoad, which provides electronic fleet tracking and road user pays management services, would look at acquisitions in Australia and the US to boost its market share once it completes an initial public offer of up to $49.5 million next month. The Auckland-based company wants to raise $40 million in new capital to spend on expanding its US operations and Australian base. Of that, $3 million …

 Commenting on Green Party policy released today, BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly said innovation and sustainability were needed in every sector of the economy, not just some, and business would favour policies that supported those goals if fiscally prudent.  He said business would strongly support the Green Party’s policy of more funding for science and technology teaching.  The policy announcement …

Today’s CPI gives the lie to Simon Bridge’s claim that power prices only rose by 2.3 % in the last year. Labour’s Energy spokesperson David Shearer says.  “Its official; the CPI index says power prices increased by 4.2% in the last quarter. This is the second highest quarterly increase in electricity prices measured by the CPI index this century. The …

Prices of dairy products may extend this year’s 34 percent slump, economists say, adding to pressure on Fonterra Cooperative Group to lower its milk payout forecast and taking some of the steam out of New Zealand’s economic expansion. The GDT Price Index dropped 8.9 percent to the lowest level since December 2012 in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, the 10th decline in past …

New Zealand inflation held steady in the second quarter compared to the first-quarter pace as gains in prices of electricity, home rentals and new houses were partly offset by cheaper package holidays, vehicles and liquor. The New Zealand dollar fell as traders mull the future interest rate track.  The consumers price index was unchanged at 0.3 percent, for an annual …