Zespri Chairman John Loughlin will stand down as chairman and a director early next year. Loughlin joined the Zespri Board as one of three independent directors in 2002 (the other five directors are grower-directors) assuming the chairmanship in August 2008. |The  Zespri Board will now undertake a search for an independent director with the necessary commercial and financial skills and …

Haier New Zealand Investment Company Ltd (Haier) has received necessary approvals from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to proceed with its offer to acquire all the shares in Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. The offer remains subject to other regulatory approvals, including from the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office. About Haier Group Haier Group is a global …

China’s $US6 billion a year nutritional powders market will have a new competitor  next year with the launch a2 branded ‘natural milk’ powders. To further its entry into the Chinese market which is growing around 12 per cent a year, A2 Corporation has appointed China State Farms (Shanghai) as its distributor. The powders will be produced in New Zealand by …

Updated  President Barack Obama landed a lot of punches in his foreign policy debate with Mitt Romney in Boca Raton, Florida,” says Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove. “But President Obama’s truest line of the night was when he said to Governor Romney: ‘You say you would do the same things we did but you would just say them …

Eleven candidates are seeking election to the Fonterra board as shareholder directors: They are Blue Read, Donna Smit, Eric Ray, Grant Cochrane, Grant Rowan, Jacqueline Rowarth, Jan Marten Kingma, Lachie Cameron, Michael Spaans and the two incumbent directors John Wilson and Nicola Shadbolt. Candidates for the Fonterra Directors’ election were announced following the completion of the Candidate Assessment Panel (CAP) …

The 2012/13 season is expected to be more subdued for pastoral farm businesses as product prices come off recent highs, the Ministry for Primary Industries says. MPI has released the 2012 pastoral farm analyses as part of its annual Farm Monitoring Report series. The reports provide models and overviews of the financial performance of typical dairy, sheep and beef, and …

Chinese women dominate latest Hurun Report, half of the 22 self-made female entrepreneurs worth over US$1 billion are from China. The number of women making the cut this year fell from 28 in 2011 to 22. Of the top ten women on the list, seven are from China. The average wealth is 13.7 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.8 percent compared …

US Election  Lowy Institute’s Dr Michael Fullilove  “At first glance, the differences between the two candidates for president of the United States in 2012, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, are striking. Each candidate is doing his best to emphasise these differences. Most commentators have drawn sharp distinctions between the two candidates on foreign policy. Global perceptions of the …

The majority of New Zealanders aged 14+ years are now using some form of social media. Having monitored Facebook for over five years, Roy Morgan Research also reports that over half of New Zealanders (56%) use Facebook in an average four weeks. These finding are from ‘The Digital Universe’ report, recently released by Roy Morgan Research. Currently visited by 2 …

Video  All Blacks legendary captain and captain of business Sir Wilson Whineray passed  away yesterday aged 77. Sir Wilson played 32 tests for New Zealand, and was captain in all but two of them. He rose to great heights in his business career chairing Carter Holt Harvey for a decade and also National Bank. Auckland International Airport chairman Joan Withers said …