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Cottonsoft, the toilet tissue maker working to repair its reputation after criticism of parent Asia Pulp & Paper’s tropical rainforest logging, narrowed its loss in 2012 and took a smaller shareholder advance, its accounts show. The net loss was $1 million last year, from a loss of about $2.4 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with the …

Auckland house prices edged up for a second month in June in the face of fewer listings and intense demand among property buyers, according to Barfoot & Thompson, the city’s biggest realtor. The average sale price rose 0.8 percent to $649,945 last month, adding to a 0.3 percent gain in May, the firm said. The median price rose 3.5 percent …

The New Zealand dollar weakened as signs of an improvement in the US economy buoyed speculation the Federal Reserve will start tapering its asset purchases. The kiwi dropped to 77.45 US cents from 77.73 cents at the 5pm market close in Wellington yesterday. The local currency earlier this morning fell to 77.31 cents, the lowest level since Monday. The trade-weighted …

Wall Street fell, giving up earlier gains, as comments by Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley suggested the central bank might reduce monetary stimulus provided by its bond-buying program. “I believe a strong case can be made that the pace of growth will pick up notably in 2014,” Dudley told the Business Council of Fairfield County in …

The value of cash market trading on the NZX slowed last month, from a near-doubling in May on the coattails of the MightyRiverPower listing, though was still up from June 2012. Total value traded climbed 20 percent to $2.7 billion in June from the same month a year earlier at an average daily value of $141 million, according to NZX’s …

newzealandinc.com couldn’t resist giving KRudd’s famous video one final airing after the Aussie Prime Minister called on “our friends in Beijing” to get on with the FTA with Australia. (The amusing video was leaked by the Gillard camp when they set out to roll Rudd in 2010). But that was then. Rudd has now called on China – Australia’s largest …

May 19–21 saw several hundred delegates from across the United States and New Zealand gather in Washington for the biannual U.S.-New Zealand Pacific Partnership Forum. The forum, organized by the United States–New Zealand Council, has been instrumental in helping to normalize relations between the two countries, which had cooled significantly following New Zealand’s 1985 ban on nuclear-powered or nuclear weapons-capable …

The Court of Appeal has sentenced all four former directors of Lombard Finance & Investments to home detention, having accepted the initial sentences were “manifestly inadequate.” In a judgment today Justices Anthony Randerson, John Wild, and Christine French substituted the sentences of community work imposed on the Lombard four. Bill Jeffries was sentenced to eight months home detention and 250 …

The Reserve Bank of Australia said its currency may extend a 10 percent slide since April as the bank maintained its easing bias and kept its benchmark cash rate unchanged at 2.75 percent. “The Australian dollar has depreciated by around 10 percent since early April, although it remains at a high level,” Governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement on …

Restaurant Brands New Zealand, which is counting on new burger chain Carl’s Jr to drive future earnings growth, is closing unprofitable stores at its worst-performing Starbucks unit ahead of a possible sale next year. The fast-food operator closed six Starbucks stores last financial year and may shutter a further five outlets as leases come up for renewal, leaving 22 profitable …