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The Supreme Court has upheld the Inland Revenue Department’s bid to keep $127.5 million goods and services tax on the 2003 sale of 170,000 hectares of central North Island forestry. The long-running tax dispute stemmed from KordaMentha’s Michael Stiassny and Grant Graham, as receivers for Forestry Corp and Citic New Zealand, paying the tax bill in 2003 when selling the …

Fonterra will open an office in Delhi  next year and has appointed Hamish Gowans GM to run the Indian operations. It will be the Co-operative’s first operating office in India and the first time Fonterra has employed its own India-based staff. These developments follow Fonterra’s strategy refresh in March. Fonterra President Greater China and India Kelvin Wickham said the opening …

Women’s Affairs Minister Jo Goodhew  joined with the Institute of Directors in Auckland to celebrate the successful completion of its 2012 mentoring programme, and welcome a new intake of 27 women for 2013. “The Institute of Directors is to be congratulated for its persistence and commitment to increasing the number of women on private sector boards,” Goodhew said. “It is …

Air New Zealand, the airline slated for a selldown by its government owner, has reiterated its target for full-year earnings to more than double, driven by a rebound in the first six months of the year. The shares rose after the announcement. The Auckland-based company first gave the forecast with the release in late August of its full-year results, saying …

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced Carolyn Burns, Tony O’Brien and Rob Fyfe will join Antarctica New Zealand’s management board. Professor Burns, a marine science expert, and Mr O’Brien, a media relations specialist, will begin their terms immediately. Mr Fyfe’s term will commence on 1 February 2013, once he steps down as CEO of Air New Zealand. Tenby Powell, a founder …

Rangatira, the Wellington-based investor that is adding the Rainbow’s End theme park to its portfolio, reported a 39 percent decline in first-half earnings, reflecting the ‘lumpy’ timing of work at its half-owned Contract Resources. Profit fell to $3 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from $4.4 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement. It kept …

Pyne Gould Corp, which sold its corporate trust unit September, is seeking returns of more than 15 percent over the next decade and doesn’t expect to ever pay dividends, according to chairman Bryan Mogridge. The company, 77 percent owned by managing director George Kerr, expects to sell its Perpetual trust and wealth management units before the year’s end, leaving it …

Sanford, the country’s second-biggest fishing company by sales, fell 6.7 percent after it took charges on restructuring its Coromandel mussel farm and legal fees for its unsuccessful defence of claims it dumped waste oil off American Samoa. Net profit fell to $20.9 million, or 22.3 cents per share, in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from $22.3 million, or 23.8 …

NZ National Fieldays Society has signed an MOU with the Confederation of Indian Industry which is the organisation behind  India’s largest agricultural technology trade event – Agro Tech. The MOU –  brokered by ANZ – will assist the two organisations to collaborate to promote their international trade activities.  It was unveiled during a business mission to India led by Primary …

With another round of TPP negotiations beginning  in Auckland a dialogue amongst ourselves about TPP is helpful. This is important in these times of austerity when transparency is at a premium, because it was after all a conspicuous absence of transparency in  financial oversight that  created much of the  present economic turmoil. Inside NZ itself  TPP has been presented throughout …