Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand, which operates 22 hotels across the country, is mulling a capital return if the float of Chinese investment First Sponsor Group goes ahead. The Singapore Exchange has issued an eligibility to list letter for the proposed initial public offering, which will probably be in the third quarter if it proceeds, the Auckland-based company said …

The New Zealand dollar rose above 86 US cents overnight, as investors seeking higher yields anticipate a rise in the nation’s benchmark interest rate tomorrow. The kiwi touched a week high of 86.20 US cents early this morning and was trading at 85.97 cents at 8am in Wellington from 85.78 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index advanced to 79.90 …

A raft of merger and acquisition activity in the global drug sector helped underpin equities on both sides of the Atlantic, as did better-than-expected earnings from companies including Netflix and Travelers. Shares of Allergan soared, last up 15.3 percent, after Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals offered to buy the company in a deal worth some US$46 billion. Separately, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Eli …

The New Zealand screen industry’s revenue dropped 4 percent in 2013, from a record high in 2012, as decline in production of feature films more than offset gains from local television and movie theatres. Total revenue for the sector was $3.15 billion in 2013, down from $3.29 billion a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand. The screen industry includes …

A rebel shareholder group that attempted an unsuccessful takeover bid for Abano Healthcare has launched a campaign to unseat its chairman, Trevor Janes, in a coordinated attack that also questions decisions by NZX Regulation and a valuation by investment house Grant Samuel. Healthcare Industry and Steamboat Capital, which jointly hold some 19 percent of Abano shares, have also launched a …

New Zealand’s “buoyant” manufacturing sector expanded for the 19th consecutive month in March as domestic demand for goods and fast-growing Asian economies fuelled economic momentum through the first quarter of 2014. The employment index reached a seven-year high. The BNZ-BusinessNZ seasonally adjusted performance of manufacturing index increased to 58.4 in March, from an upwardly revised 56.5 in February, and 53 …

The New Zealand dollar jumped three quarters of a US cent against the greenback to its highest since July 2011 after the Federal Reserve minutes from its last meeting in March pushed out expectations of when the Fed will start raising interest rates. The kiwi jumped as high as 87.25 US cents from 86.47 cents immediately before the release of …

Wall Street rose, extending gains after the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes eased concern that US policy makers had been planning to raise interest rates sooner than had been anticipated. The Fed released minutes from the March 18-19 Federal Open Market Committee meeting were released at 6am New Zealand time. Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s comments at the end of that …

The law change allowing Telecom to carve out its Chorus network unit to participate in the government’s ultra-fast broadband scheme “was always going to drive a pricing sea-change” for the company’s regulated services, according to a High Court judge. Justice Stephen Kos today turned down an appeal by Chorus to have the regulator’s initial pricing principle (IPP) set aside, and …

The mining industry lobbyist, Straterra, is calling for improved administration of New Zealand’s environmental and minerals regulations and wants the low-impact activities of mineral prospecting and exploration made automatically permissible. However, Straterra is less convinced that major reforms to the Resource Management Act’s balance between environmental and economic influences will improve the lengthy and complex processes currently facing many mining …