Simon Hartley

New Zealand and Australian companies' results are generally down, in line with expectations.

Mainfreight has taken a more than 50% hit on after-tax profit during the past quarter with difficult and depressed trading across all operations in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the United States.

Glass Earth Gold - which has spent $22 million exploring for gold in the past three years - is confident it will be producing gold, from bulk testing at its Ida Valley prospect in Otago, by the end of the month, in its quest to generate a cash flow for the first time.

Fraud charges have been laid by police against a Milton woman over allegations of the theft of $43,000 from the Westpac bank in Milton where she worked.

Toronto-listed Glass Earth Gold has taken a 50% stake in private gold explorer Ophir Gold Ltd and will spend at least $250,000 on evaluating Ophir's prospect near Omakau in Central Otago.

Chalmers Properties is selling 13 freehold land titles of mainly industrially zoned land near central Dunedin - potentially worth $10 million to $12 million.

The Ministry of Fisheries' Dunedin branch is moving into a custom-designed building early next year on the site of the former Shoreline Hotel in South Dunedin.

International credit rating company Standard and Poor's has downgraded South Canterbury Finance and Marac Finance, the re-ratings pounding the value of some of their respective listed bond issues overnight.

Two Dunedin property managers have had their Real Estate Institute of New Zealand practising certificates cancelled after "acts of misconduct" were uncovered in trust accounts they managed.

Fletcher Building's almost $1 billion purchase of Formica - accounting for almost half of $360 million written down for unusual items - has dragged the construction company into the red with a $46 million loss.

The failure of the Otago franchise of Signature Homes appears set to leave more than 150 unsecured, mainly Otago business creditors out of pocket, with total debts to all creditors estimated at $1.3 million so far.

Negotiations over restructuring proposals at Port Otago are near "crisis point", the Maritime Union of New Zealand says, as more than 200 staff are due to take part in a stopwork meeting today to consider a counter proposal by the employer.

The road to Milford Sound is due to open at 11am today following a 10-day closure because of avalanches, but snow-clearing work will continue during the week, according to New Zealand Transport Agency area manager for Southland, Peter Robinson.

Hawkes bay-based Lowe Corporation, which unexpectedly closed its Dunedin fellmongery and laid off 60 staff 11 days ago, has confirmed some job opportunities could exist at a skin-salting plant it is starting in Mataura.

Dunedin police will launch a CIB investigation after a city bank laid a formal complaint over allegations of fraudulent activities by an employee.