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New Zealand’s largest electricity producer, Meridian Energy, has resumed talks with Rio Tinto Alcan, the majority owner of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, over Rio’s request for changes to 18-year contracts for power supply that kick in on Jan. 1. Meridian chief executive Mark Binns told the company’s annual public meeting in Wellington that Rio had recently come back to …

The Teamsters Union’s Mike Nolan has lashed out at Fonterra saying the NZ dairy giant’s “virtual monopoly” must be diminished if the TPP is to go ahead. Nolan – who touched base with the US Dairy Council in Washington DC before coming down to Auckland for the 15th round of TPP negotiations – claimed that there would be $US20 billion …

Don Christie – founder of Catalyst IT and a leading New Zealand expert on open source software – said he was disappointed with the proposed effects for the technology industry under TPP at today’s stakeholder meeting in Auckland. “TPP is a big missed opportunity” said Christie citing an independent report out of the UK (available for download below) which called …

An unnamed adviser at a registered NZX participant firm will pay a $10,000 settlement with the market watchdog after getting found out on a backroom deal to get Trade Me shares when the online auction site was floated last year. The adviser used a client to get their hands on 1,500 Trade Me shares in the initial public offering, when …

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the first overseas investors to disclose a substantial holding in units of the Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund that debuted a week ago. Funds associated with Australia’s biggest lender hold 7.4 percent of the units, according to a substantial security notice yesterday. The funds bought 6.6 million units at a grand total of some A$31 million on …

Turners & Growers, the fruit marketer controlled by Germany’s BayWa Aktiengesellschaft, changed its guidance and is now forecasting a full-year loss, reflecting a writedown of its orchards. “Early indications are that there will be write-downs, particularly of orchard properties and biological assets,” the company said in a statement. “As a result the after-tax loss is forecasted to be between $16 …

CTU official Bill Rosenberg has raised the spectre of Warner Brothers suing a future NZ Government if it tries to unwind “the Hobbit” law. At the TPP stakeholders day in Auckland this morning, Rosenberg said the CTU’s interest in the trade negotiations is not limited to labour rights. Rosenberg instanced the NZ Government’s decision to change labour laws to ensure …

The New Zealand dollar climbed to a 16-month high on a trade-weighted basis after investors piled into currency after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler yesterday all-but ruled out a rate cut as he zeroes in on potential inflation emerging in the country’s housing market. The trade-weighted index rose as high as 74.45, the highest level since August last year, and …

NO EARLY XMAS PRESENTS FROM THE ECB OR BOE. As widely expected, both the ECB and BOE left their major policy settings unchanged. Updated ECB forecasts were unveiled, with ECB having become gloomier about the growth outlook. The mid-points of its latest staff forecasts imply that GDP will fall by 0.5% this year and a further 0.3% in 2013, before rising …

The euro weakened against the US dollar and the yen after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the euro-zone was expected to stay in recession next year, reversing an earlier forecast for a recovery in economic growth. The downgrade to the outlook for gross domestic product came as the ECB left its benchmark interest rate at a record low …