Higher funding costs and a potential financial shock in Europe are the biggest challenges facing New Zealand's main trading banks, according to a report by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers... Read more

Three big business gatherings in Christchurch have been cancelled or put on hold... Read more

New home owners are finding themselves in limbo and at risk as insurers refuse to write any new policies for Christchurch's shaken homes.... Read more

Specialist US-based business advisory firm FTI Consulting is expected to take over the management of New Zealand's Yellow Pages group... Read more

NZX-listed electricity retailer Pulse has frozen trading in 464,000 of its ordinary shares, belonging to a subsidiary controlled by two large shareholders, former director James Martin and Stephen Frewen... Read more

Electricity lines companies look set to cut a swath through Telecom's network.... Read more

Telecom withdrew to its bunker, cancelling media briefings with chief executive Paul Reynolds as it ponders its first round lock-out from the ultra-fast broadband roll-out... Read more

Crown Fibre Holdings has prioritised three regional deals in its short list for the government funded roll-out of an ultra-fast broadband network... Read more

Crown Fibre Holdings’s short-list of ultra-fast broadband providers is a sign that Telecom cannot expect the whole project to itself, and a spur to local governments to make UFB installation as easy as possible, says Vector... Read more

The five main banks made combined profits of $1.3 billion after tax in the first six months of their 2010 financial years... Read more

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has rejected a proposal by National Australia Bank and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, which would allow the Australian bank to take control of its rival... Read more

A top-level financial security task force investigating online company registration says some clients of those creating shell companies "represent a high risk of criminality".... Read more

New Zealand manufacturing volumes fell 1.8% during the June quarter, the third consecutive decrease, and the lowest sales volumes since the September quarter of 1999, according to Statistics N.Z. figures... Read more

The value of New Zealand’s total building work hit an 18-month high in the June quarter as the construction sector bounces back from a slump... Read more

Cantabrians with building damage after Saturday's earthquake are being warned to be careful when checking on tradespeople to do repair work.... Read more

Beef + Lamb New Zealand economists are picking the average sheep and beef farm's pre-tax profit to slide 5 per cent to $54,000 in the year to come... Read more

Signs of a cash shortage at takeover target NZ Farming Systems Uruguay emerged late yesterday after the release of a letter to the stock exchange from bidder Olam International... Read more

New Zealand's global infrastructure ranking is sliding. Brain drain and the way Kiwis recruit staff are among the anchors dragging the country down three places from 20th last year to 23rd out of 139 countries in the World Economic Forum's annual global competitiveness report, released yesterday... Read more

Early education publishing empire founder Wendy Pye is chasing a big share of new multibillion-dollar United States grants to improve child literacy.... Read more

Turbine maker Windflow Technology has revised its loss for the year ended June 30 upwards to $7.95 million because of costs of remedial work for customer NZ Windfarms... Read more

The residential property market remains constrained, although is being buoyed somewhat by fixed mortgage rate cuts, according to the ANZ's August Property Focus... Read more

New Zealand-based chemicals supplier Nuplex Industries is considering shifting to Australia... Read more

Patrick Smellie. Let’s get one thing straight. Earthquakes are not good for the economy. There’s been some feverish talk about the damage to Christchurch being some kind of god-send for the construction industry, especially after last week’s prediction of a collapse in activity in that sector, with 20,000 to 30,000 jobs at risk... Read more

Jenny Ruth. Investors wondering what to do with their about $1.73 billion in South Canterbury Finance and Allied Nationwide Finance refunds don't have to settle for bank deposit rates... Read more

Daily Sharechat. AMP NZ Office Trust (APT) is facing significant vacancies with Westpac moving out of its two Auckland premises in the PricewaterhouseCoopers building and all but half a floor of its Wellington space in the Vodaphone building in the year ending June 2012, says Buffy Gill, an analyst at Goldman Sachs JB Were... Read more

NZ Market Report. Shares fell for a second straight day, after Crown Fibre Holdings prioritised three regional deals in its short list for the government funded roll-out of an ultra-fast broadband network, dousing hopes for a Telecom-led national approach... Read more

Australian Market Report. The Australian sharemarket set a four-week high yesterday... Read more

A top global investor is bearish on the mining boom, and warns prices are artificially inflated by strong investor interest in commodities.... Read more

A study of tweets about Australia's big four banks has found that people dislike all banks about the same, but for different reasons.... Read more

The ACCC has maintained its opposition to National Australia Bank's proposed takeover of AXA Asia Pacific.... Read more

The French parent company of takeover target Axa Asia Pacific (APH) has opened the door to rival bidders.... Read more

Anna Bligh's $4 billion float of QR National is set to go ahead after a rival bid for Queensland's coal railways collapsed... Read more

Court bans expert from disparaging ovarian cancer test OvPlex, the flagship product of HealthLinx.... Read more

Talks between BHP Billiton and ArcelorMittal over merging their West African iron ore ground have broken down.... Read more

Robert Goddard is the man who said no to Frank Lowy. His family company owns the Emporio building on Pitt Street, Sydney, and he isn't going anywhere... Read more

NSW replaces Victoria as the engine of the nation's jobs growth, creating the bulk of the nation's new jobs... Read more

A surge in full-time jobs has cut the unemployment rate from 5.3 to 5.1 per cent... Read more

Airlines warned that regulators will be watching to ensure they do not raise fares substantially on South Africa route after V Australia quits in February... Read more

Virgin Blue's hopes of stemming losses from its long-haul offshoot, V Australia, have suffered a setback after US regulators indicated they would block its planned joint venture with Delta Air Lines on the Australia-US route... Read more

Santos is set to announce a long awaited sell-down of a stake in its Gladstone liquefied natural gas project today... Read more

Santos could be forced to raise as much as $3 billion after the French oil company Total agreed to buy a 20 per cent stake in its Queensland liquefied natural gas project for $867 million - a price tag that underwhelmed the market and sent shares lower... Read more

A multi-billion recapitalisation of Alinta Energy has moved closer with a private equity consortium briefing creditors on a proposal... Read more

North America's Anatolia Minerals struck a $US2 billion ($A2.16bn) deal with Avoca Resources as consolidation sweeps the gold sector... Read more

Lindsay Tanner is following in the footsteps of former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, taking a position with investment bank Lazard.... Read more

The Australian dollar scorched its way to a four-month high in Asia yesterday... Read more

Malaysian property group Mulpha Berhad has thrown its weight behind FKP's counter-bid for retirement village operator Aevum.... Read more

Pay packets of top chief executives escaped the pain inflicted on shareholders during the global crisis, according to a report... Read more

The listed Over Fifty Group's Century Funds Management business is likely to target at least five more Becton Property Group funds.... Read more

Australians appear to be too scared to look at their superannuation after being mauled in the global financial crisis... Read more

More than 200 staff have lost their jobs and $2.5 million in entitlements are in doubt following the collapse of the privately owned security firm, Reliance Security Group, amid claims a former director loaned millions of dollars of company money to a prominent businessman... Read more

Foxtel has called on the Gillard government to shorten the anti-siphoning list of sport protected for free-to-air television... Read more

London fund manager Henderson Global, spun out of AMP in 2003, wants a bigger footprint in Australia.... Read more

Private equity investors will need to bid at least $3.1 billion for Foster's wine business, according to analysts... Read more

Andrew Main. Banking's getting like politics, if the biffo shown in a Commonwealth Bank announcement to the ASX yesterday morning is anything to go by... Read more

Danny John. No end of deal-making, legally binding undertakings and creative thinking by NAB and AXA AP turned out to be enough to persuade the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that their tie-up should be allowed to proceed, the regulator ruled in its detailed findings... Read more

Malcolm Maiden. The question that the banks probably don't want the NAB boss, Cameron Clyne, to try to answer now is whether his $13 billion AXA Asia-Pacific takeover was derailed by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, or some higher and for them more ominous principle that signals the end of the era of big bank takeovers... Read more

Elizabeth Knight. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission blocked the National Australia Bank's plan to buy the Australian arm of wealth management player, AXA Asia-Pacific, because it had simply drawn a line in the sand on local banks buying more market share in the financial services industry... Read more

John Durie. NAB shareholders should thank ACCC boss Graeme Samuel for saving them from the potential nightmare of the Axa takeover... Read more

Ian McIlwraith. Advent Energy's controversial plan to drill for gas just 55 kilometres off the coast of Newcastle might produce a resource worth $12 billion, yet a series of share deals between the unlisted group's major investors do not seem to reflect values anywhere near that... Read more

David Symons. The bungled leak of a highly unattractive proposed counter-offer yesterday risked denting the credibility of Aevum's defence of the hostile takeover offer from Stockland... Read more

Stephen Bartholomeusz. The relatively cheap price of Santos' sale of a Gladstone LNG stake to Total will unsettle the market, but having a secure partner finally on board will undoubtedly bring more stability for Santos... Read more

Barry Fitzgerald. The chief of Avoca Resources, Rohan Williams, has a big task ahead of him trying to convince the local market of the merits of the group's agreed merger with Canada's Turkey gold specialist, Anatolia Minerals... Read more

U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more

World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more

The global economic recovery is slowing faster than forecast, but a return to recession is unlikely, the OECD says... Read more

The U.S. trade gap fell sharply in July, reducing a major headwind for U.S. economic growth and quieting some fears of a double-dip recession... Read more

The United States has been overtaken by Sweden and Singapore in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness survey.... Read more

Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs is fined £17.5m by the UK's financial watchdog.... Read more

China's main bank regulator has warned that serious risks are building up in the financial sector and specifically linked improving financial risk management to the "important task" of maintaining social stability in the country... Read more

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said China must let the yuan rise more quickly to show trading partners that it’s following through on its promises... Read more

Japan’s government said it will seek discussions with China over the nation’s record purchases of Japanese bonds as an appreciating yen threatens to undermine an economic recovery... Read more

The Bank of England keeps UK interest rates on hold at a record low of 0.5% for the 18th consecutive month... Read more

South Korea's central bank surprises markets by keeping interest rates on hold in the face of "global uncertainties"... Read more

Deutsche Bank AG has approached investment banks to assess their interest in managing a stock sale to raise as much as 9 billion euros ($US11.4 billion), said three people with knowledge of the discussions... Read more

Charles O. “Chuck” Prince and Robert Rubin were among Citigroup Inc. officials who knew 2007 losses were mounting on mortgage assets that U.S. regulators have faulted the bank for not disclosing, a court filing shows... Read more

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp. started talks with potential corporate investors for the $3 billion initial public offering of its logistics unit, two people with knowledge of the matter said... Read more

Apple is loosening its grip on its app development for its mobile devices, announcing that it will drop restrictions on what programming tools developers can use to create iOS apps... Read more

Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that the "Cuban model" no longer works, an apparent admission of failings in the communist economic model introduced by his revolution more than 50 years ago... Read more

In the world of business, who in their right mind would turn down the opportunity to dine with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett? Chinese tycoons, apparently.... Read more

Paul La Monica. Does anyone care about Yahoo anymore?... Read more