Gareth Vaughan, sitting in for Bernard Hickey, details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating transactions between would-be Crafar Farms buyers Natural Dairy Holdings and the UBNZ group.
SFO CEO Adam Feeley said the transactions in question were the proposed sale and purchase of the Crafar Farms. The 16 farms were tipped into receivership last October owing about NZ$216 million to Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance. Natural Dairy and UBNZ have agreed to buy the farms for about NZ$213 million although the deal is contingent on Overseas Investment Office approval and receiver KordaMentha can accept a better offer.
The OIO says until the SFO investigation is concluded, it can’t provide a recommendation to the Government on whether the Natural Dairy-UBNZ offer should be approved.
In the United States Reuters reports that mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need up to another US$215 billion of capital from the Treasury through until 2013 to offset losses and maintain a positive net worth. The US Federal Housing Finance Agency estimates Fannie and Freddie, which were seized by the Government in late 2008, will likely need between US$221 billion and US$363 billion through to 2013. The projected amounts vary depending on changes in home prices. As of June 30 they had drawn down US$148 billion.
Meanwhile in Australia, the Treasury is preparing for a public assault on any bank that seeks to hike its mortgage rates above a potential Reserve Bank of Australia rate rise on November 2, Melbourne Cup Day. Jim Murphy, a Treasury executive director, told a senate hearing the Treasury was collecting information on each bank's cost of funds and would use it to hold them to account.
And in an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel has called for new laws to deal with potential collusion on interest rate changes.
"We're starting to get concerned about price signalling," Samuel told the AFR. "At the moment the commission doesn't have the power to deal with it."
At the same time the chairman of Australia’s Future Fund has been in talks with the Julia Gillard government about opening up Australia Post's branch network for financial services in a Kiwibank style move.
The Australian cash rate is currently 4.50% with expectations it might be lifted to 4.75% on November 2.
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24 Comments
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4261375/Studio-confirms-Hobbit-moves
A 15% subsidy - $50-60m of taxpayer dollars paid to Warner Bros to land them in NZ in the first place - and as Robin Malcolm suggests - the cost of the minor actor/extras wouldn't equate to the amount of the coffee budget .... not to mention the 'skin in the game' each of us has contributed anyway!
And they're still talking about leaving - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10682276
Whatsup with this $50m+ of our money going to fricken Warner Bros in the first place and why isn't uber hypocrite Rodney all over this? The actors want to lever up for a bit of extra dosh and they're the "villain" but it's OK for Warners to be gorging on the Kiwi taxpayer teat.
Warners sucks!
Please stop Kiwidave, you're embarrassing yourself. NZ enjoyed NZ$2.5 BILLION injected into the economy in 2008 alone due to Lord of the Rings. The global profile delivered by a movie of this scale and the associated short & long term revenue that is delivered to the host country is measured in the billions of dollars.
The production cost alone is $500 million. Most of that will be spent in the country where the movie is filmed.
So, er, yes. We invest in that. NZ$50 million worth of tax-breaks (or whatever it is) is nothing. Double it. Triple it. Quadruple it.
Just GET THAT MOVIE MADE IN NZ. We've got NZ$1.3 trillion of leaky homes to pay for...
Let them leave we can produce other low budget movies like:
19 Sophia Street-Money Never sleeps.- Alan Hubbard is one of the screens most notorious villians after emerging from a lengthy SFO investigation Hubbard finds himself on the outside world he once dominated. Looking to repair his damaged relationship with Sandy Maier he again seeks to regain his once powerful empire, with Jean by his side there is no stopping him.
LOL
But,gadzooks!...
suddenly as Big Al and Jean settle down for a nice cuppa and a cucumber sammie, the nemesis of all financial scoundrels, Darth Hickey, swings down the chimney with his able assistant, Wollyman, and tortures poor ole big Al and Jeaniie wif da light brown hair , to get down on dere gnarley old knees and "apologise to the nation for rorting us poor taxpayers!"
i reckon this one's got teeth FCM..
Agree Wolly, talking to people here it is the other way around, i.e do not buy in those walled areas keep away, he's just highlighted the areas in CHC not to buy a house in. Watch the other areas go up in vlaue and these to delcine..it may balance out in around 10 years time once people have forgotten.
Doesn't work that way, FCM. They all go down. At some stage buyers say, ' would I pay $100k for a house in 'the walled zone" or $500k for something similar in a good area"? The normalisation that you talk of in the future, happens now. And at, say $250k, business gets done in both zones, as 'walled zone' buyers become canibalised from the good zone. ( ie: the walled house get bought, leaving the good ones unsold, at their asking price)
Well for the next three to five years those areas will be construction sites...I doubt very much the value has dropped outside of those zones as much as the ones inside, (your fiqures are a bit far fetched in regards to the difference). Also you have insurance issues, I know as I have a house in the zone, no one wants to touch you. But hey at the end of the day the consumer will have the final say.
Sorry. My figures were just an illustration. But any damaged asset that has been repaired competes against the undamaged, new item. Take hail damaged cars. If a hailstorm had whipped through Chch and all the new cars outside had been dinged; when repaired ( they have to say, as do the property sellers in the LIM etc) would you not buy one if it was substantially cheaper, and repaired, just because a freak storm ( earthquake) came though? If I were to return to Chch and prices varied in 'fixed or to-be-fixed' area, that's where I'd go, at a price. And that takes away my purchase in another area.
You they kind of guy we need to move to CHC and buy the houses then. All I am saying is that in general, over next four years or so those sites will be a real mess (they are now) the amount of work that needs doing is immense (Wolly is right be far cheaper building on new land to try and fix broken land as it is very costly) if demand is still here (CHC still grows) then most people won't want to buy in those areas and will look at the other areas, you will get a demand supply situation and will push those prices up more so than if the earthquakle did not happen. (May not push them up if general property prices are in decline- but they probably wont delcine at the rate that they would of before the earthquake struck).
As for Brownlee well that guy is putting so much SPIN on everything i am surprised he can walk straight, the reality is NO one is beign told anything of much substance and everything is still up in the air.
It's complete tosh...utter rubbish from Brownlee....far better to buy and develop a new subdivision on real land and let the owners draw lots for plots.
Bulldoze the stuff left behind and create a huge park.
This concrete/stone wall pipedream has come from a construction firm that expects to collect the loot for building it...how deep...how big....how strong....oh just enought to ensure we make a bloody fat profit off the taxpayer and council....then what....how deep is bedrock?...100 metres or more and then it's crap....no sooner would they finish than a mag 5 centred under the 'safe' zone and pop goes the plug in the middle..houses people and all.
More on the Aussie banks here - http://www.businessday.com.au/business/bank-profits-to-stall-without-ra…
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