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Property for Industry led the NZX50 up before lunchtime today as it announced a deal to merge with Direct Property Fund, an unlisted PIE in the same sector, to create a commercial property empire worth close to $800 million. PFI shares were up 4.9 percent at 11am, at $1.40, and were showing a 14.1 percent gain over the last 12 …

Cofco chairman Frank Ning was one of the star performers at the inaugural New Zealand China Partnership Forum in Beijing last Friday. Ning has thought long and hard about Cofco’s relationship with food-producing nations like New Zealand. I’ll be writing more about this in coming days. Meantime this Bloomberg clip gives an indication into Ning’s thinking.

Prime Minister John Key arrived back in New Zealand from Beijing with a strong message ringing in his ears that China Inc wants to step up the pace and take the bilateral economic partnership to the next stage. It was a good week for Key. Not only have senior Chinese accepted the essential value proposition of New Zealand to China (which …

Summerset Group, the retirement village operator and developer, is pressing ahead with plans for a $100 million site in Lower Hutt after completing due diligence. The Wellington-based company plans to buy the 3.3 hectare site from Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club for its 20th retirement village, it said in a statement. The contract needs Overseas Investment Office approval, which is …

A slew of corporate earnings results will likely set the mood in the coming days following last week’s record run that boosted Wall Street to its best weekly performance this year. In the past five days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.1 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 2.3 percent while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.8 …

New Zealand stocks rose, pushing the NZX 50 Index to a record, as retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare and Port of Tauranga charted new highs. The NZX 50 rose 26.23 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,435.76, the highest since the inception of the gross index in 2003. Within the index, 27 stocks rose, 16 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover …

Shares of would-be coking coal miner Bathurst Resources plunged 18.75 percent to 26 cents after the first appeal from environmental groups opposing an Environment Court decision upholding its Escarpment open-cut mine resource consents. The announcement from the Royal New Zealand Forest & Bird Society and West Coast Environmental Network came less than a day after the company said it hoped …

The New Zealand dollar is heading for a 4.3 percent weekly gain against the yen, adding to last week’s 4.2 percent increase, as investors buy into the Japanese central bank’s massive money-printing programme to revive the country’s stagnant economy. The kiwi increased to 85.75 yen at 5pm in Wellington from 85.58 yen yesterday, and hit a new five-year high 86.13 …

Housing New Zealand has reached a $320 million settlement with insurers led by Suncorp Group’s Vero unit over 5,559 homes damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes, $110 million less than the state agency had originally claimed. The settlement involves for insurers in New Zealand, 23 in the UK and Europe, Lloyds of London and insurance broker Aon and is the largest-ever …

The Serious Fraud Office has added the scalp of former Dominion Finance and North and South Finance executive Paul Cropp to its tally of successful finance company prosecutions. Cropp was today found guilty in the High Court in Auckland relating to related party lending totaling approximately $13.57 million in breach of the companies trust deeds, the SFO said in a …