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Photo: supplied Fletcher Building has made a deal to sell its Australian plumbing supplies and distribution business for A$170 million (NZ$155.2m). The construction company announced a decision to sell Tradelink in February following a comprehensive strategic review that concluded the business did not fit with its long-term strategic focus. Australia's trade distribution business Metal Manufactures will buy all the shares in Tradelink with A$160m cash on the 30 September settlement date. The remaining A$10m cash payment will be deferred based on meeting separation milestones over the next two years ending by September 2026, which could cost Fletcher about A$20m in costs. Fletcher Building acting chief executive Nick Traber said: "We are pleased to have signed the Tradelink sale agreement...

Will the Reserve Bank deviate this week from its long run of holding the Official Cash Rate steady at 5.5 percent? Photo: RNZ There are growing expectations the Reserve Bank will cut the official cash rate when it releases its monetary policy statement (MPS) on Wednesday. Business leaders, as well as an increasing number of bank economists, were pencilling in a 25-basis-point (bps) cut to the Official Cash Rate (OCR), which would see the interest rate drop to 5.25 percent from the current rate of 5.5 percent. The OCR had been sitting at a 14-year-high of 5.5 percent since May 2023, after rising steadily from a record low of 0.25 percent in October 2021. Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald said the business community had been doing it tough for a number...

The multi-million dollar Pan Pac paper pulp making plant, near Napier, has ground to a halt due to sky high power prices, and they are calling on the government to do more. Photo: Supplied/ WB Action is desperately needed as large power companies profit while growing numbers of manufacturers and households power down, unable to afford soaring electricity bills, commentators say. Wholesale electricity prices doubled in the last three weeks, and rose to more than $900 per megawatt hour on Wednesday, with New Zealand's hydro lakes storage drastically lower than normal for this time of year and households warned to expect big increases in their bills. North Island pulp and paper plants have also temporarily closed down, and businesses have turned hundreds of workers away. University of Auck...