ASB Securities Morning Brief for Wednesday, 17 March 2010

The Cabinet has approved a $300 million plan to roll out high-speed broadband services to rural New Zealanders while overhauling the way Telecom is compensated for supplying services that aren’t commercially viable... Read more

Telecom said the New Zealand government’s plans to roll out high-speed broadband services to rural areas while overhauling how the phone company is compensated for uneconomic lines will slash earnings over the next three years... Read more

Telecom's stock price hit an all-time low yesterday after it told the market that its share of the Government's new rural broadband initiative would cost it $168 million over three years... Read more

About 100 jobs will go at loss-making Christchurch cablemaker General Cable New Zealand, with plans to shut four of its five plants and shift some production to Southeast Asia... Read more

Huljich Wealth Management has made changes to its investment committee following the resignation of chief investment officer Peter Huljich... Read more

Local Government New Zealand says suggestions from the Property Council that development contributions are a rort are flamboyant and irrational... Read more

The Reserve Bank's comments last week on the new interest rate environment have captured the attention of economists.... Read more

Inland Revenue has collected $1.16 million of tax from online traders who buy and sell on websites such as Trade Me... Read more

Shares in New Zealand Refining Company jumped 10.3% after the announcement refining margins recovered to US$6.85 per barrel in the first two months of the calendar year... Read more

Southern Travel Holdings, a travel and tourism services company, posted a first-half loss as swine flu, the global financial crisis and unfavourable foreign exchange movements hampered sales... Read more

Milk suppliers to New Zealand Organic Dairy Farmers’ Co-operative, which was placed in receivership on Friday, have been offered a lifeline by Fonterra Cooperative Group... Read more

More corporates and overseas buyers are buying farms than are farmers, rural real estate agents say... Read more

Air New Zealand, “fanatical” sponsors of the All Blacks, have announced they will considerably increase the number of domestic flight seats from January next year to cater for the bumper year ahead... Read more

Construction work has started on Oman's imposing new parliament buildings, designed by New Zealand firm Moller Architects.... Read more

McDouall Stuart Securities, the Wellington-based brokerage, will outsource its trading and settlement activity rather than face directly the approximately $10 million cost of stock market operator NZX's new clearing and settlement system... Read more

Craigs Investment Partners and Morrison & Co. have launched a $125 million fund to invest in the government’s public-private partnership vehicle, Public Infrastructure Partners (PIP)... Read more

Anticipated mismatches between production and receipts, as well as the impact of financial difficulties at wind turbine maker Windflow Technologies sole customer are revealed in the company's results for the six months to December 31... Read more

Roderick Deane has confirmed his retirement from the board of Fletcher Building, ending a 16-year association with Australasia’s biggest building materials company including nine as chairman... Read more

Fidelity Life has appointed Chris Lynch to the newly created role of investment operations manager which will see him sit as a full member of the company's investment management committee... Read more

Fran O'Sullivan. It is hard to fathom why John Key continues to allow the leader of a minority party to drive the biggest "corporate" merger in New Zealand's history when he is making such a pig's arse of it... Read more

Daily Sharechat. The breakdown of Auckland International Airport's first-half earnings showed retail revenue was down because of it reverting to two duty free operators from one previously but they were higher than expected, says Florian Burch, an analyst at ASB Securities... Read more

NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares fell, pushing the NZX 50 Index lower for the first day in three, as Telecom Corp sank to a record low after saying the rural broadband scheme will slash earnings for the next three years... Read more

Australian Market Report. Australian stocks edged higher, but there was a distinct lack of momentum in the market... Read more

Kerry Stokes's plan to merge Seven Network with mining equipment group WesTrac has received a positive valuation from an independent expert.... Read more

Seven Network shareholders are being asked to take a haircut of 8.5 per cent.... Read more

Rio Tinto's campaign to win back favour with Beijing after last year's hostilities has extended to the group's annual report... Read more

Wherever the starting point, all roads to Africa's largest iron ore tenement must pass through Beijing.... Read more

Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese's remuneration package jumped almost fivefold to $US9.03 million ($A9.87m) last year... Read more

The Reserve Bank decided to raise interest rates in March because the balance of economic data showed the domestic economy was growing close to its speed limit... Read more

Foster's flagship beer, VB, doesn't have the vice-like grip on barbecues, parties and beer mats it enjoyed 20 years ago, and it has some analysts worried.... Read more

A former Macquarie banker who made more than $3 million profit in alleged illegal trading said he was under extreme pressure at the investment bank and embarked on the plan only after the bank reneged on an agreed pay deal... Read more

Citibank has ambitious plans to end the big four's stranglehold on consumer credit cards... Read more

The country's only female retail banking boss has criticised the industry for losing touch with the values of the communities they serve... Read more

Thousands of investors using offshore tax haven accounts have been contacted by their banks and warned they could face huge ATO penalties.... Read more

National Australia Bank revealed yesterday that its $18.4 billion portfolio of troubled credit instruments had caused losses of $1.3 billion over the past two years... Read more

A new report on social trends provides further evidence that the economic downturn in Australia has been anything but mild for young people.... Read more

The Melbourne company behind an underarm roll-on that can boost men's testosterone levels has signed what it claims is a record licensing deal... Read more

Royal Dutch Shell has listed Australia as a ''key growth region'' for the company but has refused to say whether it will increase its joint bid for Arrow Energy, saying the transaction is ''still under discussion''... Read more

Battle over a patent for an obscure molecule found on seaweed that "deafens" bacteria threatens to disrupt attempts by the management company for actors Anthony LaPaglia, Rose Byrne and Cate Blanchett to list on the ASX.... Read more

Food manufacturer Goodman Fielder will press ahead with its acquisition strategy even if the competition regulator knocks back the sale of its oil business to US agribusiness giant Cargill... Read more

Telstra has raised $1.5 billion in new debt through a corporate bond issue that does not have to be repaid until 2020... Read more

Japan's Toho Zinc is not about to let go of its grasp of base metals miner CBH Resources.... Read more

Liquified Natural Gas will pursue other options for its Fisherman's Landing project after its deal with Arrow Energy became non-exclusive... Read more

GPT would not offload almost $700 million worth of non-core assets in Australia and the US for another year or two... Read more

Goldminers in Western Australia are facing a hike in royalty rates of up to 100 per cent... Read more

Fear of becoming a takeover target is running high at the $7.2 billion Lihir Gold - as illustrated in an unusual clause contained in confidential agreements that potential buyers of the group's failed Ballarat project had to sign to gain access to the data room before its recent sale... Read more

Scrap metal recycler CMA Corporation has renegotiated and increased its debts with two of its banks to about $166 million, but has Commonwealth Bank demanding ''early repayment'' on a $7.4 million debt... Read more

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd is searching for a buyer for its 10 per cent stake in Vietnam's Sacombank, becoming the first foreign bank looking to sell its stake in a domestic lender... Read more

Bionic ear company Cochlear has missed out on acquiring the hearing-aid business of Germany's Siemens, which has dropped plans to sell the division after failing to get bids of more than E2 billion ($A3bn)... Read more

Australia's laid-back nature appears to have helped the nation's bosses through the devastation of the global financial crisis.... Read more

Matthew Stevens. Martin Ferguson has entered the increasingly fractured debate over the Queensland Rail's sale... Read more

Stephen Bartholomeusz. Deloitte's report on the proposed merger of Kerry Stokes' WesTrac group with Seven Network says there's a 50 per cent chance the deal is fair and reasonable... Read more

Malcolm Maiden. Political infighting about the government's proposed new national broadband network is continuing. Yet behind it the fact remains Telstra and the NBN Company are still far apart on the question of how much Telstra should be paid to co-operate with the network's construction... Read more

Elizabeth Knight. There are few individuals in Australia who could harness the business elite, collect them in the same room and have them give of their time and money for a common cause. Australia's richest man, Andrew Forrest, has done just that... Read more

Robert Gottliebsen. The only way to understand what really happened in the Rio Tinto, Chinalco, BHP saga is to understand the extraordinary roles played by the companies' chairmen... Read more

U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more

World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more

The administrators of Michael Jackson's estate and Sony Music Entertainment have reached a recording deal valued at as much as $US250 million, according to published reports... Read more

Government plans to cut the UK's budget deficit are not ambitious enough, a European Commission report will warn this week... Read more

Royal Dutch Shell says it will shed a further 1,000 jobs by the end of next year as part of its cost cutting programme... Read more

U.S. employers won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February, three Obama administration economic officials said... Read more

More than half a million UK pensioners living overseas will continue to have their pensions frozen after a court decision... Read more

Risk appetite rebounded as concern eased that U.S. interest rates will have to rise later this year to cool inflation, prompting investors to cut cash holdings and buy equities, a BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed... Read more

China and Japan, the two biggest foreign holders of Treasuries, reduced their positions of U.S. government debt in January as a measure of demand for American financial assets fell to a six-month low... Read more

India may create a sovereign fund to help state companies compete for overseas energy assets with rivals from China, a government official said... Read more

Alexis Stenfors, a former senior trader at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit in London, was banned for at least five years from holding a similar position after he mismarked positions to cover up losses... Read more

Google Inc.’s fate in China may be decided this month as Internet-service licenses come up for renewal, amid growing speculation a censorship row with the government will drive the U.S. company from the country... Read more

South Africa’s central bank said a small group of its shareholders is acting against the interests of the nation’s economy in trying to make a profit from holding stock in the company... Read more

Daimler AG and Renault SA have been unable to resolve differences over valuations as the carmakers explore a share swap that would bring Daimler into the Renault- Nissan alliance, two people familiar with the matter said... Read more

Walt Disney World in Florida may be the next stop for bullet-train makers in Japan and China... Read more

San Miguel Corp. plans to raise $US1 billion selling stakes in its food, packaging and liquor businesses to fund the Philippines’ biggest food and drinks maker’s growth and acquisitions... Read more

The plan for Britain's first "factory farm" for cows has stirred up the debate on the future of farming in Europe... Read more

Facebook is beginning to eat into Google’s dominance of web traffic, last week edgeing ahead of the search giant as the most visited website in the US,... Read more

Paul La Monica. The waiting, as Tom Petty once sang, is the hardest part. And fortunately for U.S. investors, who've been eagerly anticipating the latest take on the economy from the Federal Reserve, the waiting is almost over... Read more