Fertiliser use across the country is down by 30% and may well indicate farmers' pasture production could be negatively affected and subsequently take several years to recover.
Dunedin's historic former BNZ building in the Exchange is to be refurbished for possible commercial-retail use by Dunedin building owners Ted Daniels and Wayne Marsh, who have purchased the 125-year-old former bank in a new joint-venture.
Printing company Wickliffe has asked its 290 employees in Dunedin and Auckland to take a 5% pay cut.
South Canterbury Finance is confident underwriting by principal shareholder and chairman Allan Hubbard will see its BBB- "investment grade" Standard and Poor's rating retained, as opposed to being downgraded.
Dunedin clothing supplier Silkbody has clinched a deal with one of Europe's most prominent retailers to sell its natural silk clothing range.
Australian-listed Origin Energy, which holds two oil and gas offshore exploration permits in the Canterbury Basin, will decide in 12 months whether to proceed with a drilling programme.
Sea-floor gold miner Seafield Resources, which has offshore seabed permits stretching 500km from Karamea to Jacksons Bay on the West Coast, hopes to begin a full test programme next summer.
Farra Engineering's one-off manufacture of a specialist electricity turbine part weighing 1.8 tonnes has prompted Meridian Energy to order five more units.
Fonterra's revised $4.55 payout for milk solids for 2009-10 - a downgrade announced in May, which wiped almost $800 million income from the economy - is again under "serious risk" following Fonterra's latest "spot market" milkpowder auction, Westpac senior economist Doug Steel says.
News that indebted children's-wear retailer Pumpkin Patch is to close 20 of its 35 United States stores - as the US financial crisis and recession wear on - prompted an 11% spike in its share value yesterday.
Two tranches of South Canterbury Finance bonds have slid in value during recent weeks from $1 to 92c - with investors pushing through some exceptionally large trading volumes across the secondary board.
Former Dunedin businessman Ricky Quirk - who once had hospitality sector holdings across the South Island - was made bankrupt in the High Court at Christchurch this month.
Supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises says it is still "investigating" purchase of a large block of land in South Dunedin, which it was reported to have bought earlier in the year.
Canterbury Basin oil explorer Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWE) has been granted a five-year extension to its permit off Oamaru and has gained a further 12 months in which to make a decision on whether to test drill the offshore prospect.
The historic 125-year-old former BNZ building and two adjoining premises in Princes St in Dunedin have been sold for an undisclosed sum to a "local conservator" of older buildings.
A consortium of four shipping lines has dropped Port Chalmers from its fortnightly visits to northeast Asia in favour of stopping at Lyttelton.
The Accident Compensation Corporation has taken a 5.7% stake worth $182,117 in Dunedin-based oral-health biotechnology company Blis Technologies.
New Zealand is likely to follow the Australian lead and phase out financial advisers' commissions on financial products in favour of fees, Investment Savings and Insurance Association chief executive Vance Arkinstall says.
Large mining permit applications by Australian iron-ore giant Fortescue Metals Group and explorer Glass Earth Gold - totalling more than 45,000sq km across New Zealand - have been granted in recent months.
Iain Nellies
The liquidation of the Santa Sabina apartment project in Northeast Valley may owe more than $600,000 to a raft of local creditors and a finance company, but hope of a creditors' payout appears to be diminishing.
