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New Zealand property values continued to rise in February, with most of the increase still coming from Auckland and Canterbury. National property values rose 3.2 percent in the three months ended Feb. 28 to $428,692 and have gained 6.3 percent over the past year, according to state valuer Quotable Value. Property values are now 3.2 percent above the last peak …

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler has an increasing number of moving parts to juggle in his assessment of monetary policy, with the kiwi dollar higher than forecast, a resurgent housing market and the impact of drought on economic output. Wheeler will keep the official cash rate at 2.5 percent when he releases his monetary policy statement on March 14, according …

Billionaire George Soros has installed a director on the board of Guinness Peat Group after the Quantum Strategic Partners fund his firm manages took an 8 percent stake in the investment company last year. GPG said Waldemar Szlezak, a representative of Soros Fund Management, was appointed as a non-executive director this week. “I am pleased to have the expertise and …

Corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley has passed the half-way point in his exit from Guinness Peat Group, the investment firm he founded in the early 1990s, and has raised some $17.73 million in a series of sales since October last year. The Sydney-based septuagenarian sold 5 million shares in GPG at 60 cents apiece for a total of $3 million …

Wellington Drive Technologies, the unprofitable manufacturer of energy efficient motors, has requested a trading halt pending an announcement. The irregularly traded shares fell 8.7 percent, or 1.5 cents, to 14 cents yesterday, valuing the Auckland-based company at $11.3 million. The stock has dropped 30 percent in the past 12 months. The manufacturer has embarked on a turnaround plan which has …

Genesis Energy, the state-owned energy company, has called a meeting of investors in its hybrid bonds to replace the trustee installed by the Financial Markets Authority with the Jim Bolger-chaired Trustees Executors. In September, the FMA appointed Corporate Trust as trustee for the debt for a period of six months after declining to issue a licence to existing trustee Perpetual …

Warehouse Group, which this week bought a majority stake in online retailer Torpedo7, almost doubled net profit after selling properties as part of leaseback arrangements, and will pay a bigger interim dividend than analysts were expecting. Net profit climbed to $106.5 million, or 34.2 cents per share, in the six months ended Jan. 27 from $54.2 million, or 17.4 cents, …

Three years after taking over Shell New Zealand’s petrol refining, transport and retail operations, Infratil and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are looking to float between 40 percent and 60 percent of Z Energy on the NZX in the third quarter of this year. The announcement comes at the start of an Infratil investors’ day, and reflects in part the …

The New Zealand dollar declined against the euro after European Central bank chief Mario Draghi was less gloomy than some in the market had expected, forcing traders to cover their short positions. The kiwi fell to 63.13 euro cents from 63.70 cents at 5pm in Wellington yesterday. The local currency traded at 82.79 US cents from 82.76 cents. The ECB …

Better-than-expected American labour data propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average to another intraday record high. Jobless claims posted a surprise drop to 340,000 last week, Labor Department data showed, while the four-week average fell to the lowest level in five years. “There’s an underlying element of support for the labour market and it’s really driven by housing and potentially construction …