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Heartland New Zealand, which gained bank registration in December, posted a 9.2 percent gain in first-half profit on increased earnings from retail, business and rural lending and a reduction in costs. Profit rose to $10.7 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $9.8 million a year earlier, the Christchurch-based company said in a statement. Net operating income rose …

Summerset Group, the retirement village operator and developer, more than tripled its net profit, beating the forecast from its 2011 prospectus, and will pay a bigger dividend than what analysts were picking. Net profit climbed to $14.8 million, or 6.96 cents per share, in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, from $4.3 million, or 2.39 cents, a year earlier, the …

Shares in Chorus dropped 2 percent after the telecommunications network operator spun out of Telecom signalled the cost of building a nationwide ultrafast broadband network has increased by some $300 million. The Wellington-based company expects the total UFB build to be between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, from a previous range of $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion. It flagged capital …

Meridian Energy says it’s ready for partial privatisation and expects a significant uplift in operating earnings in the second half after transmission outages and heavy rainfall knocked its performance in the six months to Dec. 31. The state-owned power company’s accounts also show a strong positive bounce in the unrealised value of its contracts to service the Bluff aluminium smelter, …

ew Zealand Post Group, the state-owned postal service, posted a 68 percent jump in first-half profit as stronger earnings from KiwiBank and Express Couriers made up for the continued slide at its core postal service. Profit rose to $59.6 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $35.4 million a year earlier, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. …

Mainzeal director Richard Yan has stepped down from the New Zealand China Council’s executive board of his own volition. newzealandinc.com believes Yan – who has been a passionate advocate for a strong relationship between New Zealand and China – would not have wanted to cause any issues for the recently formed council. Yan earlier appeared on the council’s executive board …

Ministry for Primary Industries  Director-General Wayne McNee says overseas regulators have  said they would like to know about issues like DCD residues in NZ dairy products before information is given to the media. McNee says none of the dairy products recently destroyed by Chinese authorities contained DCD residues. China’s food quality authority’s met recent quarterly list of products that have not …

APN News & Media plans to go to the High Court to defend an IRD claim to $48m (plus 50% penalties and interest) over interest claimed on “certain financing transactions”. The dispute involves tax of NZ$48 million for the period up to 31 December 2012. The IRD is seeking to impose penalties of 50% of the tax in dispute and …

New Zealand equities stormed past 4,200 on the NZX50 Index, recovering ground lost since mid-January despite a mixed first full week of corporate earnings as Telecom Corp became the latest big corporate to announce big job cuts. The NZX50 index of leading stocks rose 44.175 points, or 1.1 percent to 4,214.603, a level not seen since Jan. 18, when there …