Port Otago has repeated its $2.5 million half-year dividend to 100% owner the Otago Regional Council, but issued a caution about ''mixed trading'' in the second half. Revenue for the half-year to December was up from $34.7 million to $36.6, before-tax profit up from $7.4 million to $8.4 million and after-tax profit from $5 million to $5.7 million. A $2.5 million dividend was paid, Otago regional councillors were told yesterday.
Boutique Otago electricity retailer Payless Energy can now claim not to be the smallest company in the growing retail market, having just secured a full 200 customers since its launch in July 2012.
Besieged West Coast mine developer Bathurst Resources has ruled out further capital-raising before it begins mining operations on the Denniston plateau, above Westport.
West Coast coking coal mine developer Bathurst Resources placed its shares in a trading halt yesterday, in anticipation of announcing a successful capital raising this morning.
The service sector nationally remains in healthy expansion and the Otago-Southland region made gains during March to become first-equal among the country's four regions, up 5.4 points to 59.4.
Time is running out for the 400 staff of Southern Cross Forest Products - placed in receivership almost six weeks ago - as receivers decide whether it can be sold as a going concern, the Amalgamated Workers Union says.
House prices continue to gather steam and were 10% higher in March than a year ago, likely to underpin the Reserve Bank's resolve to keep pressure on raising the interest rate-driving official cash rate (OCR).
China is now the country's largest trading partner with New Zealand's provision of milk to its masses, but niche-market exports of wine, paua and crayfish remain multimillion-dollar export earners. Senior business reporter Simon Hartley looks at the potential effects of the Chinese economy's austerity drive on southern exports of wine, paua and crayfish - the latter worth more than $220 million a year.
A New Zealand seafood promotion has begun in which Chinese consumers can order paua, greenshell mussels and Bluff and Pacific oysters online and take delivery within 72 hours.
Creditors of failed Dunedin fertiliser company Featherston Resources are to have a second meeting on whether to accept or reject a $A4.8 million ($NZ5.2 million) bail-out offer.
Manufacturing in Otago and Southland remains in expansion mode - and above the national average - but has taken a hit from the effects of the high New Zealand dollar.
Global jeweller Michael Hill International has achieved a more than 10% boost to revenue across all stores, assisted by a weakening of the Australian dollar against its counterparts in New Zealand, the United States and Canada.
Dunedin cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge may be the victim of profit-taking by shareholders, as its share price continues to settle after a stellar run.
Listed Steel and Tube is spending $27.5 million buying Tata Steel International Australasia, a division of giant global steel supplier Tata Steel, of India.
A 10% plunge in banks' home loan approvals has been reflected in declining house sales volumes in recent months, but residential home values nationwide are up 8.8% on a year ago.
Global gold prices have nose-dived almost $US100 ($NZ116.40) an ounce in the past three weeks, after a three-month surge to more than $US1380 in mid-March.
Private Dunedin investors have picked up two separate New Zealand Post mail centre buildings around the country in recent weeks, as the state-owned postal service sheds assets amid widespread restructuring.
The sudden closure of the landmark Fitzroy Hotel in South Dunedin several weeks ago remains a mystery.
Dunedin-founded biotech company PharmaZen has reported increased profit before tax of almost 40% and outlined an ''aggressive'' strategy for development and growth.
Environmentalists are demanding the Government drop oil and gas exploration around the country in the wake of the latest report on climate change.
