Business

Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers Retailer Briscoe Group is investing about $120 million on the development of a large North Island warehousing and distribution centre to be operational in two years. The homewares and Rebel Sport retailer had already spent about $20m to implement a warehouse management system, including a down payment on the purchase of 30,000 square metres of land at Drury, on Auckland's southern border. "We're in a situation right now where we've outlasted the existing asset that we have," Briscoe managing director Rod Duke said, adding the return on investment was expected to quick, given the improved inventory control and distribution system. The new 20,000 square-metre facility was 2.5 times the footprint of Briscoe's existing 8000 square-metre facility and would be twice i...

New research found that 37 percent of South Asian respondents use traditional banks for remittances. Photo: RNZ / 123rf All retail banks expect to offer a confirmation of payee service to customers by Easter. The Banking Association said the service will be rolled out from the end of November, but would take time before it was fully implemented. "Due to the size and complexity of payments services the banks offer means some banks were adopting a phased approach to ensure thorough user testing and customer understanding," association chief executive Roger Beaumont said. "For customers, this means confirmation of payee might not be available across all online banking platforms simultaneously," Beaumont said. "They might find that a confirmation of payee check is available from some banks ...

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Auckland Airport's $200 million offer to retail shareholders has been oversubscribed by more than 10 percent. The offer of shares at $6.95 a piece was part of Auckland Airport's $1.4 billion equity raising announced on 16 September. The capital raising was the largest ever in the country's markets and earmarked for Auckland's long awaited new domestic jet terminal building, to be joined to the existing international airport. The airport company said the money should be enough to complete all its development projects, while maintaining its credit rating and dividend policy. The institutional offer of $1.2b of new shares was fully underwritten, with $223m worth of applications for the retail portion of the capital raising. Eligible retail shareholders were all...

The official cash rate has fallen, but how quickly can that lead to a rising economy? File photo. Photo: RNZ A Reserve Bank decision to cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points might be good news for home loan borrowers but it is likely to be months before it has a real impact on the economy. The OCR has been cut to 4.75 percent. That is still above what the Reserve Bank would consider a "neutral" interest rate. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said the Reserve Bank "seemed to have realised" that the economy was weaker and did not require as much interest rate restraint, and that quicker cuts were needed to normalise interest rates. "A clear, if only implied, admission that the Reserve Bank may have been too slow to act. It still could be too far behind, if inflation is a...

Almost 70,000 New Zealanders said they worked 60 hours a week. File photo. Photo: 123RF It's time for New Zealanders to work fewer hours, one academic says - as the Census reveals we work less than we used to. Census data shows that New Zealanders work, on average, 37.2 hours per week. That is down from 38.1 hours in 2013, and roughly the same as the last census. But 297 people said they worked 168 hours a week - that is, every hour of the day. Work is defined as for pay, profit or payment in kind, or contributing directly the operation of a business, farm or professional practice operated by a relative, including a job or business that the person was temporarily absent from. In 2018, 273 people said they worked all the time, but in 2013 it was 474. There were a total of 2.6 million peo...

Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr was paid $804,802 in the 2024 year, down from $853,810 a year earlier. Photo: RNZ The Reserve Bank will pay its first dividend to the government in three years - in part because of the higher interest rates of the past year. The bank said in its most recent annual report that it would pay a $597 million dividend. The dividend is decided by determining the bank's "target capital level" the minimum amount of capital it needs to hold to cover financial risks. Money it makes in a year beyond that can be paid in a dividend. This year, the TCL was $4.1b. Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said a higher official cash rate increased the bank's net interest income. When the OCR is higher, the bank charges borrowers more for their loans, but pays mor...

Only 0.01 percent of New Zealand's 430 million hectare marine economic estate is currently being farmed, the boss of NZ King Salmon says. Photo: Supplied / Emilee Benjamin Leaders in New Zealand's aquaculture sector say the industry's growth has been constrained by bureaucracy and a lack of access to the country's marine estate - as it works toward the government's goal of reaching $3 billion in annual sales in the next decade. At the Aquaculture New Zealand conference in Nelson on Wednesday, NZ King Salmon chief executive Carl Carrington said the opportunity to grow the aquaculture industry was huge, with only 0.01 percent of New Zealand's 430 million hectare marine economic estate currently being farmed. "As a nation, we have made it incredibly difficult to gain access to farm the sea...

Photo: RNZ RBNZ bows to pressure and makes big cash rate cut RBNZ says was a toss up between 25 and 50 basis point cut Economy weak and subdued because of high rates RBNZ gives little away on the next move, but another 50 bps expected in November Analysis - Over the decades the Reserve Bank has been keen to emphasise its independence and remind financial markets and the economic chattering classes that it's in control. But its latest decision to slash the OCR by 50 basis points to an 18-month low of 4.75 percent has all the hallmarks of bending with the prevailing wind, which had been gathering hurricane force in the past week. The short statement and summary of the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said the double sized cut was justified by the subdued and weak econom...

File pic Photo: 123RF The Reserve Bank's decision to cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points, to 4.75 percent, will help the property market, but house prices may still only increase slowly from here. Chief economist at property data firm CoreLogic, Kelvin Davidson, said the key point for the housing market was the home loan interest rates were likely to continue to drop. "This could easily produce a short-term lift in confidence and a more active housing market as we hit the normal spring uplift anyway." But he said while house prices might stop falling in the near future, there were reasons why an upward surge was not likely. Housing affordability was still stretched and there were a lot of listings to choose from, he said. "But perhaps the most important restraint right now is ...

Photo: RNZ RBNZ cuts official cash rate by 50 basis points to 4.75% - lowest since February 2023 Slowing inflation and subdued economy justify bigger cut Economists and financial markets overwhelmingly backed 50 basis point cut RBNZ says the size and speed of future cuts will be determined by state of the economy Retail banks already cut some rates in anticipation The Reserve Bank has cut its benchmark cash rate by 50 basis points. The central bank cut the official cash rate (OCR) to 4.75 percent, as expected, to its lowest level in 18 months, saying the bigger than usual rate cut was justified by slowing inflation and the slack in the economy. "The Committee agreed that it is appropriate to cut the OCR by 50 basis points to achieve and maintain low and stable inflation, while se...