Dene Mackenzie

While many mothers receive perfume and other types of fragrances from their sons at this time of the year, one Dunedin mother is feeling quite special this week. Not only did her son arrive home carrying her favourite fragrance, but he had made it especially for her. Business editor Dene Mackenzie talked to Brazil-based master perfumer Isaac Sinclair.

Five very different books came across my desk recently and some of them looked very interesting. Sadly, they did not live up to the covers' hype.

Labour finance spokesman David Parker and Green Party co-leader Russell Normal yesterday continued their auditions to become the finance minister in a future Labour-Green government. Business editor Dene Mackenzie reports

The Government accounts ended their short-lived period in surplus in September to record a minuscule deficit of $34 million in October.

The Government had a pivotal role to play to end the uncertainty surrounding the pricing for Chorus' basic services, Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said yesterday.

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English was unsurprisingly the top-ranked southern MP in the Transtasman's eighth annual roll call on how MPs performed in 2012.

Telecommunications wholesaler Chorus could have between $150 million to $170 million wiped off its operating profit if decisions announced yesterday by the Commerce Commission are enacted.

The taxation of foreign entities was an "incredibly complex" area and an uninformed debate was not the right answer to furthering New Zealand's tax system, Polson Higgs tax partner Michael Turner says.

The acquisition of Farmside by TeamTalk appears to add value to TeamTalk in its own right, plus it has a strong growth story to tell, Forsyth Barr broker Haley Van Leeuwen says.

Crestclean managing director Grant McLauchlan is determined to maintain his company's exponential growth by establishing his own training organisation based on standards set by the British Institute of Cleaning Services.

One of New Zealand's highest profile women sharebrokers, Noeline Munro was last night awarded the City of Dunedin Mayor's Business Personality Award.

Southern Hospitality, New Zealand's largest hospitality and food service equipment supply company, was last night named the supreme winner of the 2012 Westpac Otago Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.