Simon Hartley

Shell has acquired another exploration block in the Great South Basin, which will likely push the cost of its hydrographic seismic survey work in recent years beyond $100 million.

Otago has joined Auckland and Christchurch in booking record median house prices for November, as market buoyancy shows signs of spreading.

Some investors in the beleaguered Hubbard Management Fund (HMF) may get less than 50% of their investment back, according to statutory managers Grant Thornton.

Investors in the disputed Hubbard Management Fund (HMF), once valued at more than $80 million, will not have any earlier payments ''clawed back'' by court order, according to statutory managers Grant Thornton.

Quarterly profit for high street retailer Hallensteins Glassons is up 7% as it heads into the crucial holiday sales period.

All eyes will be turning to deep-water oil exploration plans in the frontier Great South Basin and Canterbury Basin after Brazilian oil giant Petrobras yesterday shelved plans for up to $300 million worth of North Island exploration. There was a high-profile campaign by East Cape iwi Te Whanau a Apanui, Greenpeace and other groups last year against Petrobras' exploration of the Raukumara Basin.

Dunedin-founded construction company Arrow International has joined Christchurch-based merchant bank Murray and Co to form a $20 million property development fund.

Commercial property specialists Colliers International are calling changing times in the sector, but earthquake-strengthening requirements and flat business demand are influencing many investors to take a wait-and-see attitude.

The Overseas Investment Office has granted consent for private infrastructure company Fulton Hogan to sell almost 5000ha of Otago forestry blocks for an undisclosed sum.

Oceana Gold's gold and copper mining project in the northern Philippines - costing $US247 million ($NZ300.8 million) when completed - is about to move from development to production in coming weeks as ore is introduced into the refining process.