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New Zealand Oil & Gas, the nation’s largest oil explorer, has taken a 36 percent stake in a consortium to explore onshore south Sumatra, Indonesia. The consortium won a permit to explore the Palmerah Baru 1,000 square kilometre block, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. The venture plans to undertake three years of exploration including 2D and 3D seismic …

New Zealand prices for a combined package of broadband and phone services have fallen over the past two years but remain higher than the OECD average. Prices for a bundle with 60GB of data have dropped 14 percent over the period but are still 30 percent higher than the OECD average, the Commerce Commission said in its latest benchmarking report. …

Guinness Peat Group, which has exited more than 50 investments to focus on UK threadmaker Coats, said the UK’s Pensions Regulator has issued warning notices over its pension plans. The regulator has found the Brunel Holdings Pension Scheme and the Staveley Scheme were insufficiently resourced and the warning notices say a ‘financial support direction’ (FSD) may be reasonable. “The board …

Soaring commodity prices and insatiable Chinese demand for milk powder helped the primary sector emerge largely unscathed from last summer’s drought and Fonterra Cooperative Group’s series of food scares in 2014. homework central The year started badly for Fonterra after a Wall Street Journal article questioned the safety of New Zealand milk after traces of DCD, a nitrate inhibitor, were …

The New Zealand dollar dropped to its lowest in more than a week against the Australian dollar on expectations the divergent paths of the two economies is already priced into their respective currencies. The kiwi touched a low of 91.62 Australian cents over the weekend and was trading at 91.89 cents at 8am in Wellington from 92.45 cents on Friday. …

The optimism triggered by the US Federal Reserve’s decision to begin tapering its bond-buying program next month as the world’s biggest economic recovery gathers speed appears likely to extend into this Christmas-holiday shortened week. In the previous five sessions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 3 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 2.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite …

New Zealand shares weakened ahead of the Christmas holiday period in mixed trading as investors cash up for profits. The NZX 50 slipped 25.869 points, or 0.55 percent, to 4,681.191. Within the index, 31 stocks fell, 13 rose and six were unchanged. Turnover was $221.9 million. “Our market has been a little bit disappointing in recent weeks,” said Grant Williamson, …

Carter Holt Harvey, owned by Graeme Hart’s Rank Group, and Fletcher Building, the country’s biggest listed company, admitted to the Commerce Commission that they agreed to fix prices for structural timber for some commercial customers in Auckland in late 2012 and early 2013. The Wellington-based anti-trust regulator today filed proceedings in the High Court against Carter Holt and its manager …

Conservation Minister Nick Smith has ordered an independent financial review of the controversial Fiordland Experience monorail project, ahead of a final decision on whether to allow the project to proceed over DoC land in the Fiordland World Heritage area. Smith is due to deliver a decision early next year on the application by Riverstone Holdings, backed by Wanaka property developer …

The cost of labour in Christchurch is increasing, especially in the construction industry, driven by a tight labour market with low unemployment and strong demand due to the earthquake rebuild, according to the latest September quarter Canterbury Rebuild Report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. The mismatch between supply and demand saw salary and wages in the Canterbury …