Steel & Tube Holdings is facing 29 court charges of making false and misleading representations about its steel mesh product SE62. The Commerce Commission filed the charges in the Auckland District Court under the Fair Trading Act, relating to conduct between March 1, 2012, and April 6, 2016, the Wellington-based regulator said in a statement. Steel & Tube has been cooperating with the commission throughout the investigation and is working with the regulator to reach an appropriate resolution of the charges, the Lower Hutt-based company said in a statement to the stock exchange. The regulator started its investigation in August…

Small Business Minister Dean has today welcomed the release of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s 2017 Small Business factsheet. “The factsheet brings together statistics that relate to small businesses, and provides us with an overview of how valuable they are to the New Zealand economy,” Ms Dean says. “Businesses with fewer than 20 employees make up 97 per cent of all enterprises in New Zealand, and contribute almost $65 billion to our GDP. “Small businesses employ 29 percent of all workers in New Zealand, and it is important that we continue to support these businesses and help them…

Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn.) has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire all of the shares of Structil SA (Structil), a French producer and supplier of high-performance composites to the aerospace, defense and industrial markets. The proposed transaction is subject to review by relevant employee representative bodies and approval from the applicable French authorities. Assuming those reviews and approvals are successfully completed, the acquisition is expected to close in 2017. Structil is a joint venture between Safran Ceramics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Safran, and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (formerly Mitsubishi Rayon Corp.). The company employs approximately 70 people at a 68,000-square-foot…

Auckland Airport today formally launched Ara, its South Auckland jobs and skills hub. Ara has connected 211 people living in the airport’s South Auckland neighbourhood with long-term employment and training since it began as a trial in November 2015, and will connect thousands more local people with employers based at the airport over the next 30 years as the company builds its ‘airport of the future’. Adrian Littlewood, Auckland Airport’s Chief Executive, says: “People in the South Auckland community tell us that having stable work near their homes is important to them. Our location in South Auckland and our 30-year…

According to the Australian Business Traveller, the airline’s own-brand credit card will be a new Platinum-grade MasterCard, and will display the Qantas brand alone. ABT reported that 35 per cent of all credit card spending in Australia is already happening through co-branded Qantas credit cards, in partnership with banks, American Express, and retailers like David Jones and Woolies. Now, with Qantas not co-branding with any other company, Qantas is likely to steal a bigger slice of the profits. It comes as Virgin Australia’s own Velocity program conducted research that found that Australian credit card use is motivated by loyalty rewards,…

New Zealand headquartered intangible asset specialist EverEdge expands into Asia through key cooperation with the intellectual property office in Singapore EverEdge Global Ltd, the New Zealand headquartered, global intangible asset specialist, and IP ValueLab, a subsidiary of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), have signed an agreement to cooperate on providing strategic intellectual property and intangible asset advisory services in Singapore. The agreement positions the locally founded, private commercialisation firm well to expand into a burgeoning intellectual property market in Asia, through its new office in Singapore - its first in Asia - joining its existing offices in the…

Balex Marine, the automatic boat loader maker, has been washed away after the high cost of manufacturing and slow sales saw the Tauranga-based company burn through the crowdfunded $330,000 it raised last October. BDO's Kenneth Brown and Paul Manning were appointed liquidators of Balex and sister company Suelex on May 1 after events conspired to drain the companies coffers without an immediate lifeline. Balex raised $330,000 through 80 investments via equity crowdfunder Snowball Effect in October, just above its minimum target. However, Brown and Manning's first report says that was $700,000 below target, leaving it in a tight cash position…

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand hosted the 22nd annual Executives' Meeting of East and Asia-Pacific (EMEAP) central banks in Auckland yesterday. EMEAP is a co-operative forum of eleven central banks and monetary authorities in the East Asia and Pacific region comprising the Reserve Bank of Australia, the People’s Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank Indonesia, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Thailand. Governor Graeme Wheeler, who chaired the meeting, said governors exchanged…

Debt to Income caps (DTI) have been highlighted in a recent IMF report as an important measure to build resilience in our banks and housing market to protect financial stability. The Government needs to be willing to give the RBNZ the power to implement these DTI caps, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “Financial stability remains an issue for our economy, particularly with a rapidly increasing housing market, despite some recent moderation, and high private debt levels. All parts of the economy are damaged in any financial downturn, especially the tradable…

Statement by Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler: The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 1.75 percent. Global economic growth has increased and become more broad-based over recent months. However, major challenges remain with on-going surplus capacity and extensive political uncertainty. Stronger global demand has helped to raise commodity prices over the past year, which has led to some increase in headline inflation across New Zealand’s trading partners. However, the level of core inflation has generally remained low. Monetary policy is expected to remain stimulatory in the advanced economies, but less so going forward. The trade-weighted…

Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith have launched a new edition of an investment guide into New Zealand’s fast growing technology sector. The Investor Guide to the New Zealand Technology Sector showcases the breadth and variety of technology companies in New Zealand. “The tech sector is New Zealand’s third largest exporting sector, contributing $16 billion to GDP and it is growing fast,” says Mr Bridges. “It presents multiple opportunities for New Zealand and international investors. “New Zealand technology is gaining recognition internationally along with our innovative and can-do culture, and the fact that we…