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The New Zealand dollar dropped to a two-week low after the Reserve Bank confirmed its first intervention in currency markets for six years, and after it took a shot at the country’s bubbling property market. The kiwi fell as low as 83.62 US cents, trading at 8397 cents at 5pm from 84.55 cents at 8am and 84.94 cents yesterday. The …

Solid Energy says it will cut 105 jobs, adding to 440 already shed as the unprofitable state-owned coal miner shrinks its focus back to coal after piling on debt as part of a grandiose expansion strategy. Solid Energy has been in talks with its banks and Treasury officials as part of a wide-ranging review of the business, which posted a …

The Reserve Bank has confirmed it intervened in foreign exchange markets in an attempt to push the kiwi lower, without giving any details on the size of its action, having already given a serve to the counter-balancing strength in the housing market earlier today. “That intervention will not materially change the level of the exchange rate but could take potentially …

Following a bookbuild with the country’s major institutional investors today, Finance Minister Bill English has announced that Mighty River Power will be priced at $2.50 a share. The government is set to net $1.7billion from the partial privatisation whilst retaining a controlling 51% stake in the company. More than 400,000 New Zealanders registered their interest in the issue, with 113,000 …

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand says it intervened in foreign exchange markets in an attempt to drive the kiwi lower. It gave no details of the size of the intervention. The kiwi dollar tumbled to 83.90 US cents from 84.48 cents before his comments were telegraphed at the finance and expenditure select committee in Wellington. The trade-weighted index dropped …

The impact of drought in February, March and April on dairy farms was greater than Fonterra Cooperative Group anticipated, with milk collection down 0.5 percent in the first 11 months of the season. The Auckland-based company collected 1.414 million kilograms of milk solids in the latest 11 months, from 1.421 million kgMS in the same period a year earlier, it …

Google New Zealand, the local service hub of the world’s biggest search engine company, stacked on workers last year to keep pace with an online advertising market that’s growing at the expense of newspapers and television. Employee benefits jumped 76 percent to $4.2 million in calendar 2012, the company’s financial statements show. Service revenue, which is essentially payments from the …

The New Zealand dollar, which has gained 11 percent from its lows a year ago on a trade-weighted basis, is “significantly overvalued,” Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler says. He made the comments at a media briefing in Wellington following the release of the bank’s six-monthly financial stability report, which highlighted the risks of an overheating housing market. The bank expects …

The impact of drought in February, March and April on dairy farms was greater than Fonterra Cooperative Group anticipated, with milk collection down 0.5 percent in the first 11 months of the season. The Auckland-based company collected 1.414 million kilograms of milk solids in the latest 11 months, from 1.421 million kgMS in the same period a year earlier, it …

Synlait Milk, which operates the largest purpose built infant formula plant in the southern hemisphere, will spend $15 million to enable its factory to produce more soluble powder for China’s expanding US$15 billion market. The move will enable Canterbury-based Synlait to better compete with Dutch-based FrieslandCampina which operates the world’s only other factory able to produce lactoferrin as a spray …