Business

The High Court has penalised a former insurance group head $1.4 million. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver Head of failed CBL insurance group ordered to pay $1.4m Admitted accusations of not disclosing key information to investors Judge says rule breaches serious and undermine integrity of markets. The head of the failed CBL Insurance group has been ordered to pay $1.4 million for breaching financial market rules. The High Court penalty followed a settlement between the Financial Markets Authority and Peter Harris over not disclosing key information about the state of the group's finances. The FMA had alleged that Harris did not disclose that CBL needed to strengthen its reserves; that the group had a large amount of insurance premiums owed which had not been paid; and that regulators in ...

SkyCity has reported a full year loss of $143.3 million, on flat revenue growth of $928.5m. The casino operator's bottom line was eroded by a number of extraordinary items, including a more than $94m [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/525561/skycity-warns-shareholders-of-94-point-3m-writedown writedown in the value of Adelaide Casino's assets] and a tax adjustment of nearly $130m. When these items were excluded the company made an underlying net profit of $123.2m, in the year ended June, which was 7.2 percent down on the year earlier. Chief executive Jason Walbridge said it was a solid result given the economic circumstances, with cost of living pressures in New Zealand and Adelaide, as well as ongoing regulatory issues. SkyCity said the Auckland casino will be closed for five days next ...

Genesis Energy's head office in Auckland. Photo: Supplied / Genesis Energy Genesis Energy says it is doing its bit to deliver energy to New Zealand and sudden changes to power market rules can be unfairly costly. This comes after Transpower, the grid operator, announced it would allow generators to access more water from hydro lakes to combat the country's power supply problem. Genesis has posted its full-year profit, which fell to $131 million due to low gas, hydro and wind levels and an outage at its Huntly power station. Costs increased for the company as it had to burn more coal to make up for the shortages. Chief executive Malcolm Johns said his company's customers have been protected from the volatility in the sector. "We've put $160m more into fuel in the last 12 months... We've ...

Photo: 123rf.com New Zealand is heading towards an electricity supply crisis. Months of dry weather have led to low hydro storage and that along with falling gas reserves are being blamed for soaring wholesale electricity prices. The crunch is already hurting businesses and forcing closures, with residential consumers next in line to feel the pinch. RNZ explains how we generate electricity, why demand is increasing, how that affects the cost and what could happen next. Where does our power come from? In New Zealand, electricity is generated through hydropower, geothermal power and wind energy - with generation from the combustion of coal, oil, and gas providing baseload or backup electricity supply. Data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed that in 2023,...

Seeka profts and revenue were up due to a bumper kiwifruit crop. Photo: Seeka A bumper crop has helped the country's largest kiwifruit grower turn its fortunes around. Seeka has reported a net profit after tax of $17.1 million for the six months June, a 63 percent increase on the same period last year. Revenue is up 34 percent to $284.2m. In February the company reported a full year loss of $14.5m for the 2023 financial year due to lower kiwifruit volumes. Chief executive Michael Franks said following two challenging seasons, kiwifruit volumes have rebounded. "In New Zealand, our orcharding business grew 17 million trays, a 53 percent increase on 2023, and production from our Australian kiwifruit orchards was up 164 percent. "Seeka handled a record 43 million class one trays for New Zea...

Photo: Supplied Genesis Energy's full year profit dropped a third with low gas supply, hydro and wind levels and the outage of a power station unit squeezing earnings. Key numbers for the 12 months ended June compared with a year ago: Net profit $131.1m vs $195.7m Revenue $3.04b vs $2.3b Operating earnings (EBITDA) $407m vs $523.5m Full year dividend 14 cents per share vs 17.6 cents per share Operating earnings were down 22 percent on the previous year due to energy constraints. The electricity company said lower rainfall, the country's gas shortage and the outage of its Huntly Power Station unit 5 lowered generation. It had to burn more coal to make up for the shortage, which increased fuel costs by almost $170m and emissions by 60 percent. Chief executive Malcolm Johns said gas suppl...

Photo: Kiwibank Kiwibank has posted a record full year profit on the back of increased lending as it grew faster than the main Australian owned rivals. Key numbers for the year ended June compared with a year ago: Net profit $202m vs $175m Net interest income $824m vs $794m Lending $32.4b vs $29.7b Deposit $28.2b vs $ 25.8b Net interest margin 2.38 pct vs 2.48 pct Credit losses $24m vs $37m Steve Jurkovich Photo: Kiwibank Chief executive Steve Jurkovich said home and business lending grew 9 percent, which was about three times faster than the broader industry, while its deposits had grown about the same level. He said the performance reflected a clear preference among many consumers for a New Zealand owned bank, whose earnings and profits were retained in the country. "We know th...

Photo: Supplied / Transpower Transpower has announced it will bring forward the ability of generators to access water storage to alleviate risks to the power supply because of historically low lake levels. The decision was announced on Thursday morning. Transpower said hydro storage was at just 55 percent, among the lowest levels in around 90 years of historic records. Executive general manager operations Chantelle Bramley said the decision was largely supported by industry and will allow generators to access contingent storage at Lakes Tekapo, Pūkaki, and Hāwea if what is called a security of supply alert status is triggered. Transpower wanted to increase the buffer applied in calculating the Contingent Storage Release Boundary (CSRB) from 50 GWh to 320 GWh from 1 September 2024 until ...

Job growth fell in seven of the 16 regions, and significantly in Tai Rāwhiti Gisborne Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin New Zealand's economic crunch is deepening and things are likely to get worse before they get better, a new report suggests - but the effect of the downturn hasn't been felt evenly across the country. Infometrics has released its latest quarterly economic monitor, which indicates that economic activity in the June quarter was 0.2 percent per annum lower than a year ago, turning year-end activity into a fall of -0.2 percent. "The economy is clearly weaker, with households tightening their belts as unemployment rises and job security deteriorates. Businesses are reporting lower sales and limiting further hiring," said Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen. "Economic sentiment re...

Pine forestry offers a tempting alternative for land use that has economic and environmental benefits, researchers say. Photo: Rivers and lakes could be cleaned up with profits still generated for landowners by converting sheep and beef farms to pine trees, according to a new paper from the Our Land and Water science challenge. But the authors questioned whether New Zealanders want a sea of pine. Four different research projects, using different models and involving different researchers, all found New Zealand was heading towards having many more pine trees. The big push to pine was being driven by a combination of attractive prices for carbon credits generated by pine trees, the poor economics of sheep and beef and the need to improve water quality. All three factors together were goi...