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Equities on Wall Street and in Europe gained as investors awaited the unofficial start of the US second-quarter earnings season with the results of Alcoa due after the close of the American markets. The aluminum producer is expected to report earnings of 6 US cents per share on revenue of US$5.83 billion, according to Reuters. Alcoa shares were last up …

Synlait Milk will sell shares at $2.20 apiece before joining the NZX later this month, valuing the dairy processor at $322 million and making it the 43rd biggest company on the exchange. The Rakaia-based company plans to raise $75 million of new capital, and existing shareholders will sell $38.7 million, or 17.6 million shares, in a secondary offer, listing on …

Kura, the owner of fishing group Sealord, has scotched a media report that its Japanese investor is looking to exit the business after profits tumbled last year on a charge against an Argentinian venture. Tokyo-based Nippon Suisan Kaisha, which owns half of Kura, is trying to exit the business after taking over Sealord’s lucrative European marketing arm, Fairfax media reported …

New Zealand will ink an economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan in Wellington tomorrow evening completing a triumvirate of  FTAs with China and its satellites: Hong Kong and Taiwan. NZ will be the first Western nation to triangulate the trade relationship with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Singapore – which like NZ is understood to have agreed the guts of the …

Christchurch City Council had its credit rating cut one notch and is still on a negative outlook after losing its accreditation to issue building consents. Global rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut the long and short-term ratings to A+/A-1 from AA-/A-1+ after lowering its assessment of the city’s political and management strength, it said in a statement. The downgrade comes …

The New Zealand dollar may decline this week as traders increase bets that the Federal Reserve will start to reduce stimulus in September as the US economy shows signs of improvement. The local currency may trade between 75 US cents and 79 cents this week, with a lower bias, according to a BusinessDesk survey of 10 traders and strategists. Eight …

Frucor Beverages, whose parent Suntory Beverage & Food debuted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week, posted a 31 percent decline in annual profit as costs rose and sales fell. The New Zealand bottler of Gatorade, V, Just Juice, h2go and Pepsi soft drinks reported a profit of $22.6 million in calendar 2012, down from $32.8 million a year earlier. …

Summerset Group, New Zealand’s third-largest listed retirement village operator and developer, sold 23 percent more occupation rights in the second quarter than the year-earlier period. Wellington-based Summerset sold 100 occupation rights in the second quarter, up from 81 in the same quarter last year, the company said. Of those, new sales of occupation rights rose 16 percent to 52, while …

Meridian Energy executives are heading into a round of briefings with institutional investors this week in what the NZ Herald reports is a “pre-sale roadshow” for the partial privatisation of the largest state-owned power company. The roadshow is all part of the choreography to keep momentum in a process that still faces some big hurdles if a sale of up …

The New Zealand dollar dropped to its lowest in almost two weeks after strong labour market data in the US boosted expectations the Federal Reserve will starting pulling back its asset purchase programme as early as September. The kiwi slipped to 76.87 US cents from 77.05 cents in late New York trading Friday, when it touched an almost two-week low …