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Chinese food giant Bright Dairy & Food will give up its controlling stake when local dairy processor Synlait Milk is listing on the stock exchange, retaining its stake without participating in the share sale. Shanghai-based Bright Dairy is expected to keep its investment, diluting its 51 percent stake into the 40s. Other shareholders will have the opportunity to sell some …

ACT New Zealand Primary Industries spokesman Don Nicolson called for an urgent inquiry into monopoly kiwifruit exporter ZESPRI International’s operations after allegations of dodgy business practices were highlighted on TVNZ’s ‘One News’ last night. It is alleged that ZESPRI had full knowledge of the actions of their importer in China and was complicit in their actions to defraud the Chinese …

Synlait Milk, the dairy company controlled by China’s Bright Dairy & Food, is considering an initial public offering in New Zealand three years after abandoning such a capital raising because of lack of investor demand. Bright Dairy emerged with a 51 percent stake in 2010, paying $82 million and said at the time it would consider a share market listing …

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has excluded Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold miner, and an African subsidiary from its $22 billion investment fund, citing its human rights and environmental record. The Canada-based mining giant, which has a market capitalisation of C$21 billion, didn’t meet the human rights and environmental standards of the UN Global Compact, which the Super Fund …

The New Zealand dollar may decline this week as a resurgent US currency is buoyed by optimism growth is accelerating in the world’s largest economy. The kiwi dollar recently traded at 82.77 US cents, from 82.98 cents late Friday in New York, and earlier touched a seven-week low of 82.58 cents. The dollar may trade in a range of 81.50 …

Key environmental groups have signed up to a proposal which would allow both ecological restoration and intensive dairying to occur in the Mackenzie Country. The newly unveiled Mackenzie Agreement is the product of three years’ consensus-building led by Guy Salmon, a close adviser to Cabinet Minister Nick Smith and an architect of the collaborative process behind the Land and Water …

The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is “losing millions of dollars every month” and can ill-afford to give shift workers a 50 percent increase in leave without increasing hours worked, the company says. The smelter owner, New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, says it will appeal an Employment Relations Authority decision that overturns its 20-year practice of applying a “lieu days benefit”, which …

SkyCity Entertainment Group shares rose to the highest level in 5 ½ years after the Auckland-based casino and hotel company inked a deal to build a $402 million convention centre in exchange for increased gambling concessions. SkyCity shares rose 3.4 percent to $4.55, the highest since November 2007, after the deal was announced in Auckland by Economic Development Minister Steven …

The number of New Zealand house sales slipped from a six-year high last month, with prices deflating a little, though the national market is still being driven by the country’s two biggest cities, Auckland and Christchurch. Agents sold 7,104 houses in April, down 13 percent from March, though up by 25 percent from the same month last year, according to …

Jade Corp spin-off Wynyard Group has all but announced it will list on the NZX within the next two months, subject to the fast-growing intelligence software group’s shares being accepted by the local bourse. Chaired by former Treasury Secretary Murray Horn, Wynyard has appointed advisers and a broker to raise funds “to accelerate its international growth strategy and meet the …