Week in review

Friday 22nd August 2003

A computer glitch at a registry manager shut down Stock Exchange trading for most of Wednesday. The exchange is reviewing its reliance on outside registries after the error at RML, the biggest of the three registries.

The Central North Island Forest Partnership is closing a timber remanufacturing plant at Mount Maunganui with the loss of 110 jobs. Receiver Michael Stiassny said the plant had been losing "considerable sums" of money "for some time."

Fashion chain Rendells and Wellington department store Kirkcaldie & Stains were rumoured to be negotiating with Fisher & Paykel Appliances to make a joint bid to buy the Farmers departments store chain from Australia's Foodland.

Graeme Hart's New Zealand Dairy Foods conceded defeat and sold its 10.3% stake in Kapiti Cheeses to United Milk, a company owned by Manawatu farmers and supermarket giant Foodstuffs for $5.67 a share. The sale made NZDF a quick $527,000 profit.

NZX will release monthly "metrics" such as total market capitalisation, debt market nominal value and trading volumes and values to keep shareholders informed on the listed company's performance.

The Reserve Bank spent $100 million on a shareholding in the Bank for International Settlements, which is owned by about 50 central banks. It said the benefits included increased access to foreign currency funding "which in a crisis could enhance the bank's capabilities to intervene in markets to maintain stability."

Auckland's Intermech won a $34 million contract to make and install CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations in Iran.

Directors of Owens advised shareholders to wait for a Deloitte Corporate Finance independent report before accepting Mainfreight's $1.03 takeover offer. They said asset backing was 83c, not 61c as Mainfreight claimed, and that 2003 earnings were 4.9c a share before a tax asset write-off.

Christchurch payroll and human resources systems firm PayGlobal is expanding its Australian operation and has appointed sales staff in the UK and Hong Kong. Ten new staff will be hired in Australia and New Zealand.

Christchurch-based Jade Software made 71 staff redundant in a round of cost-cutting and "redevelopment." Jade still employs 300 full- and part-time staff.

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