Business

The half-finished apartment building in Auckland's Epsom has been left derelict for the past five years. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley A year after a troubled, half-finished Auckland apartment block found a new owner, neighbouring businesses are still waiting for the building to be finished - or knocked down. The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent. The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023. Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with ra...

About 230 workers await news about whether they still have jobs at Winstone Pulp. Photo: Alexa Cook/RNZ It is an anxious time for 230 North Island mill workers who are waiting for a meeting where they will learn if their company is closing down or not. Winstone Pulp International has proposed closing two of its mills near Ohakune because of high wholesale power prices. For the past few weeks Winstone has been meeting with energy company Mercury and ministers to try and find a way to stay open. A petition was launched last week to save the mill - as there are fears the nearby communities will turn into ghost towns because Winstone is the main employer in the area. The final decision was expected on Monday, but it was extended until Tuesday afternoon, and the company planned to meet with ...

By Max A. Cherney and Kenrick Cai, Reuters Apple held an event Tuesday morning to showcase the new iPhone 16, Airpods and Apple Watch models. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP Apple unveiled updated Watches and AirPods at an event focused on its AI-enhanced iPhone 16, although Apple's product showcase risks being overshadowed by Chinese rival Huawei's tri-fold phone, unofficially announced earlier in the day. The Chinese company's website showed on Tuesday that it had garnered more than 3 million pre-orders for its Z-shaped tri-fold phone. This underscores Huawei's ability to navigate US sanctions and solidifies its position against Apple in China, where consumers are hankering for more AI features and are willing to pay for them. Apple shares were barely changed in early after...

Customers who want to return items bought online may face more charges, as some retailers have been adding up the costs Photo: NZ Post The decision by retailer ASOS to start charging shoppers for returns when they frequently want large refunds makes sense in a changing retail environment, commentators say. The large international clothing retailer announced it will charge UK shoppers £3.95 for returns unless they keep £40 of their order. In New Zealand, returns cost $8.99. Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young said the evolution of influencers had changed how people shopped, and many people now ordered large numbers of items online, only to return the majority. "If the retailer is paying for the freight it will impact on margins and profitability, together with double handlin...

IRD has been giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns. File photo. Photo: AFP Inland Revenue (IRD) has confirmed it will look into the safety of how it anonymises the taxpayers' details it provides to Facebook and other social media platforms. IRD is giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns, despite legal and computer experts saying it is not safe. It earlier said all the details were fully protected by anonymisation using a "hashing" process, in which letters are replaced by numbers. 'Hashing' substitutes long strings of letters and numbers for taxpayers' names, dates of birth, address, phone, and email contacts, which have been provided by IRD in lists of up to half ...

Photo: Alexa Cook/RNZ The final decision on whether a Central North Island forestry products mill will close down has been pushed out to Tuesday. Winstone Pulp International is proposing to close its two mills indefinitely due to high wholesale power prices, and a final decision was expected on Monday. However, Winstone chief executive Mike Ryan told RNZ that has changed. "Winstone Pulp International has extended the timeframe for a decision on its future until the afternoon of Tuesday 10 September," he said. Mayors, forestry companies and ministers have met several times over the past few weeks in a bid to find a solution that would prevent the loss of 230 jobs. Some locals have not stuck around for the final decision and have already left to work in Australia, but many are anxiously aw...

Federated Farmers' meat and wool chairperson Toby Williams. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham It is looking like another challenging season ahead for the country's already struggling sheep farmers. Beef and Lamb New Zealand's new season outlook showed while global demand for red meat was forecast to improve slightly next season, farm profitability will remain a challenge - especially for sheep farming. The report said farm profit margins were being hit by high costs, especially interest payments, reaching low levels similar to those seen in the 1980s and 1990s. It described the current forecast for farm profitability this coming year as "sobering" - with profitability for red meat forecast to drop 7.4 percent to an average of $45,200 per farm. It said the 1 percent expected increase in reven...

The regulator's work programme will include breaking down barriers to competition. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski A new power sector investigator will work on bringing more generators and independent retailers into the electricity market to strengthen competition. The Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority established the Energy Competition Task Force last month to tackle high prices on the wholesale market. The regulator's work programme will include breaking down barriers to competition. Commission chair Dr John Small said for example, new market entrants need to know the sector can support them if the wind did not blow or the sun did not shine. "A big issue for independents who are investing in renewable technology such as wind and solar [is] these are intermittent sources o...

Photo: FREELANCEIMAGES/UNIVERSAL IMAGES A long list of 147 solar, wind and geothermal projects have been announced by companies eager to find investment for a renewables boom. Massey University mathematics professor and climate writer Robert McLachlan said if every solar or wind farm that was announced got built, New Zealand would be flush with renewable energy. The Electricity Authority's generation pipeline said 10,000 gigawatt hours of new supply were being actively pursued out to 2026, equal to between a quarter and a fifth of the country's annual power consumption. But McLachlan said less than a fifth of that was fully committed or close to committed before the end of next year. "In the short term there will be more projects approved. "I don't think there's enough for next year," he...

Sharemarket returns were boosted by holdings in the so-called 'magnificent seven' technology stocks, including Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla and Nvidia. Photo: 123RF The value of the NZ Superannuation Fund has hit a record high of $76.6 billion on the back of a strong performance by overseas technology stocks. The fund earned $11.2b for the year ended June, a 14.9 percent rise on the previous year, as sharemarkets were driven higher by improving economic factors and surging overseas sharemarkets. "Declining inflation, positive macroeconomic data and optimism that generative AI technology will boost corporate profitability saw global markets perform exceptionally well," chief executive Jo Townsend said. She said the fund's active investment strategies, which included commitments to real estat...