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A man loads boxes onto an Armourguard truck. Photo: Armourguard / supplied The Commerce Commission has allowed a merger of two firms in the cash handling and transport sector, even though it will create a monopoly for the enlarged company. It has cleared Evergreen - which runs Armourguard Security - to take over rival ACM, a part of the Linfox Armaguard Group. Both firms transport cash and other precious goods (mainly for banks) restock automated teller machines and store bulk cash. Commission chairperson John Small said it had decided competition would not be substantially lessened, given the financial position of the businesses. "It is very likely that either Evergreen or ACM would cease to operate in the near future, resulting in a single national provider of wholesale cash-in-transi...

Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi TVNZ is lining up to buy new technology to help it sell more ads. The struggling broadcaster is planning to scrap its 1News website and invest more in TVNZ+, its on-demand platform. A tender seeking more information from the market about what it calls its 'Total TV' project closes on Tuesday. The project, to align and boost its advertising on both linear and on-demand TV, will 'transform' its capabilities, TVNZ said. It wants new technology to enable "realtime, cross-platform buying decisions and forecasting" and converged selling, optimisation and measurement of online and offline audiences for customers through a single transaction, according to a tender document. It is a significant commercial move for the company, whose revenue dropped $39m in the last finan...

Reserve Bank data shows while fixed-term rates have dropped significantly this year, floating rates have remained high. Photo: RNZ Kiwibank is cutting its floating home loan rates by 50 basis points, from 8.25 percent to 7.75 percent. The Reserve Bank will update the official cash rate tomorrow, and calls have been growing for a drop of 50 basis points, which would take the OCR to 4.75 percent. Its data shows that while fixed-term rates have dropped significantly this year, floating rates have remained high. Borrowers were taking out floating rates of 8.45 percent on average in September, compared to a peak of 8.6 percent. In comparison, the average one-year rate had dropped from a peak of 7.76 percent to 6.9 percent, and rates have fallen further since. Kiwibank chief customer officer ...

Trans Tasman Resources has advised the High Court it is abandoning its appeal. Photo: Biosphoto / Michel Rauch An offshore wind energy company has reiterated its proposal to install 70 turbines off the coast of Taranaki is not compatible with seabed mining. Trans-Tasman Resources' (TTR) plan to mine 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 30 years in the South Taranaki Bight has been included on the government's list of fast-track projects. In May, off-shore wind companies sent a briefing paper to government ministers likely to be involved in the fast-track process warning them the two activities were mutually exclusive. Taranaki Offshore Partnership wants to build an offshore wind farm capable of generating 1GW - enough to power more than 650,000 New Zealand homes - off the coas...

Photo: RNZ Further cuts to the Reserve Bank's official cash rate are not expected be enough to drive housing market prices up in the short-term. QV's September data indicates average national values had a month-on-month drop of 0.4 percent in September, and were down 1.6 percent in the September quarter compared with a 2 percent quarterly decline in QV's August index. The national average value rose just 0.3 percent to $901,920 on the same time last year. The rate of decline was seen in most of the major centres, with an average three-month rolling rate of reduction in Auckland (-1.7 percent), Christchurch (-0.8 percent), Hamilton (-1.2 percent), Dunedin (-0.8 percent), with a notable exception in Wellington, where home values dropped at twice the national average rate. The Wellington re...