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New Zealand shares fell, pushing the NZX 50 Index to a month-low as Skellerup Holdings and Nuplex Industries missed profit expectations and cut guidance, and Fletcher Building continued its correction following its results yesterday. The NZX 50 fell 43.81 points, or 1 percent, to 4170.4, the lowest close since Jan. 18. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 12 rose and …

Solid Energy, the state-owned coal miner whose chief executive quit this month, is in talks with its banks because of its deteriorating financial position. The coal miner, which is carrying some $389 million of debt, is heading for a “significant” first half loss, chairman Mark Ford said in a statement. “We are in discussions with our banks and Treasury on …

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson is to open a new manufacturing facility in Wellington, helping to offset a wave of job losses announced for the capital in recent weeks. The firm, which is a supplier to the government-backed ultra-fast broadband roll-out, will create 30 jobs at a new factory in the Wellington satellite city of Porirua to produce fibre-optic cable ducts, …

The government will auction allocations for the radio spectrum band being set aside for fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile phones in the third quarter of the year, but won’t have a sweetener for iwi. Communications Minister Amy Adams said the auction process for the 700 megahertz bandwidth coming free from the switch-over to digital television broadcasting has been approved by Cabinet, …

Beleaguered APN News & Media, the Australasian publisher of the New Zealand Herald, has increased write-downs on the value of goodwill and its newspaper mastheads in its end of year result, to produce a net loss to Dec. 31 to A$455.8 million. The decision to add a further A$151 million on non-cash impairments to the A$485 million already announced at …

Specialty chemicals maker Nuplex Industries missed expectations as its net profit more than halved and the company cut its forecast for annual earnings, blaming the strength of the currency and weak trading conditions in Australia and Europe. Net profit sank to $11.5 million, or 5.8 cents per share, in the six months ended Dec. 31 from $24.1 million, or 12.3 …

Finished wood products manufacturer Tenon says it’s on the cusp of profitability as the prolonged slump in the US housing market comes to an end, but its cost-cutting and efficiency investments in New Zealand have been completely eroded by the high kiwi dollar. Tenon reported a reduced US$2 million loss in the six months to Dec. 31, down from US$6 …

Snakk Media, the latest brainchild of Hyperfactory co-founder Derek Handley, will list next month on the stock exchange’s small-cap bourse as a pre-cursor to a capital raising. The Auckland-based company, which aggregates publishers’ ad space on mobile devices and matches it to advertisers’ demand, will list on the NZAX on March 6 in a compliance listing, allowing future capital raising, …

Westpac Banking Corp’s New Zealand unit lifted first-quarter earnings 9.7 percent as it widened its interest rate margins, although its bottom line was eroded by unrealised changes in the value of its financial instruments. Profit after tax and before fair value movements climbed to $159 million in the three months ended Dec. 31 from $145 million a year earlier, according …

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated from a five-year high as disappointing US housing numbers failed to offer confidence. In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.06 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.42 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.55 percent. The S&P 500 yesterday closed at 1,530.94 the highest …