Topics

KiwiRail, the state-owned railway, will close its Coastal Pacific train service between Picton and Christchurch for the winter months to stem losses running at $3 million a year. The tourist train needs to sell 130 seats to breakeven though last winter some services carried just 30, said Deborah Hume, general manager, passenger, in a statement. The losses reflect “a significant …

Emulex Corp, the US computer network provider, will mop up the remaining shares in New Zealand-based, London AIM exchange-listed Endace after crossing the threshold to enforce compulsory acquisition in its fourth extension to the offer. The New York Stock Exchange-listed Emulex has received 99.9 percent of acceptances as at March 28 for some 76 million British pounds, or US$119.8 million, …

Yashili International Holdings, which makes and distributes infant milk formula products in China, has got Overseas Investment Office approval for its proposed 1.1 billion yuan ($212 million) milk processing plant in Pokeno. The company has three years to build the plant before its consent lapses, which will also impose “certain ongoing reporting responsibilities on Yashili New Zealand,” chairman Zhang Lidian …

Even before the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter opened in 1972, it was the subject of the same controversy now playing out. Right from the word go, governments have capitulated to hard-ball Aussie corporates – first Comalco, now Rio Tinto – who only ever invested in converting Aussie bauxite to metal because we promised them cheap electricity. That power is nominally …

The Financial Markets Authority says directors of the failed Blue Chip property investment group may yet face criminal charges as the regulator awaits the outcome of two lawsuits brought by investors. The FMA has been reviewing the case after a Supreme Court decision last year agreed with a group of investors that Blue Chip’s investment scheme marketing between 2005 and …

The government is “not interested in subsidising a foreign multinational in the long term,” State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall told Parliament in response to opposition taunts about his intervention in electricity price negotiations for supply to the Bluff aluminium smelter. Ryall also indicated Meridian Energy is no longer leading negotiations with Rio Tinto-owned Pacific Aluminium, majority owner of New Zealand …

King Country Energy, which is majority owned by Todd Energy, has cut its annual earnings expectations as the worst drought in the North Island for seven decades has cut its hydro-electricity output and forced it to buy electricity on the spot market. The Taumarunui-based company expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair value adjustments to between $12.75 million …

New Zealand building consents rose 1.9 percent in February as an increased intentions to build retirement village units made up for a fall in new housing permits. The number of consents rose to a seasonally adjusted 1,592 from 1,563 in January, according to Statistics New Zealand. Stripping out new apartment permits, which are typically lumpy from month to month, consents …

The New Zealand government is offering unspecified assistance to keep the Bluff aluminium smelter open in the short term, a move which could save next month’s float of MightyRiverPower, but blows away its hands-off policy on state-owned companies’ commercial affairs. In a statement this morning, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall said the government became involved in direct negotiations with the …

Telecom Corp, which today launched its new services over the ultrafast broadband fibre network, wants to strip out as much as $110 million in annual costs by cutting up to 1,230 jobs. The country’s biggest phone company plans to reduce staff numbers to between 6,300 and 6,600 from 7,530 by the middle of this year through a sinking lid hiring …