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The Overseas Investment Office has approved the sale of the New Zealand waste management arm of Transpacific Industries to Beijing Capital Group. Chinese state-owned Beijing Capital spent $950 million on the New Zealand business, buying it from the Queensland-based company in March. At the time of the announcement it said the current management team would remain and operations would continue as normal. …

Leaders in the agri-business sector fear the loss of the traditional political consensus favouring free trade agreements if there’s a change of government, but are equally fearful that a Labour-Greens coalition will see heavier regulation against environmental harm and will start charging farmers to use water and other “natural capital”, says the annual KPMG Agri-Business Agenda publication. While enthusiastic about Labour’s research and development tax …

Fonterra Cooperative Group has tapped Robert Spurway to head up its global operations division in a newly created role as New Zealand’s dominant dairy exporter chases global ingredient sales to offset volatility in dairy prices. Spurway is currently with the company as acting director of New Zealand operations in NZ milk products and has previously worked across the Tasman for …

Hirepool, the equipment rental company controlled by Australian private equity firm Next Capital, has confirmed plans to go public with an initial public offering, said to be aimed at raising $250 million. The Auckland-based company said it expects to register a prospectus on June 16, with the issue price set by a bookbuild. On listing, Hirepool may have a market value …

MightyRiverPower’s proposed issue of up to $300 million of July 2044 bonds has been rated BB+ and assessed as ‘intermediate equity’ by Standard & Poor’s, meaning the ratings company will classify 50 percent of the interest paid as dividends. The rating and classification come after S&P last year changed its criteria for assessing the equity content of hybrid instruments such …

New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted first-quarter wholesale trade sales slipped 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, led by a decline in machinery and equipment. The decline follows a revised 2.3 percent gain in the fourth quarter, Statistics New Zealand said. Wholesale sales of machinery and equipment, which include consumer electronics, telecommunication equipment, professional and scientific equipment, and agricultural machinery, slid 4.8 …

The New Zealand stock exchange operator, NZX, is splitting its head of regulation job to separate regulatory decision making from overall policy development in an attempt to strengthen its regulatory role. Joost van Amelsfort, a senior associate corporate/commercial at Simpson Grierson, has been appointed to the new job as head of market supervision from Aug. 4, Wellington-based NZX said in …

New Zealand shares fell, with a2 Milk Company leading the NZX 50 Index lower after its milk processor Synlait Milk cut its forecast annual profit by $7.5 million. Pacific Edge dropped for a sixth consecutive day after announcing its full-year loss had widened 44 percent. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose to an eight-year high. The benchmark index fell 4.726 points, or 0.09 percent, to 5178.435. Within the index, 14 stocks …

Abano Healthcare’s dissident shareholders Peter Hutson and James Reeves have filed papers in the High Court in Auckland in a bid to delay the special meeting they called, where they’re seeking to dump the medical investor’s chairman, Trevor Janes. The Abano shareholders, whose interests own about 19 percent of the company, want to delay the June 13 meeting by three …

The Commerce Commission will look at a handful of new products that network operator Chorus plans to roll out to see whether they need to be regulated. Earlier this month Chorus announced new products to be delivered on its copper line network, and the commission is required to see whether they can be priced separately from the regulated services. The services …