The threat of receivership hanging over embattled finance company St Laurence Ltd probably won't spill over to St Laurence Property & Finance Ltd, according to Kevin Podmore, a director of both companies, The New Zealand Herald reported. Podmore is in talks with the trustee for St Laurence Ltd., Perpetual Trust, to try to stave off receivership amid concern the company won't be able to meet the terms of its moratorium. Some 9,000 investors owed NZ$250 million in frozen funds last year agreed to give the company until 2013 to repay 70 per cent of its debentures.

Several bidders threw their hats in the ring for the business of troubled eftpos company ProvencoCadmus including a group led by existing shareholder Peter Maire, The New Zealand Herald reported. But yesterday rival eftpos provider SmartPay announced it had purchased the Australian and New Zealand payments operations of ProvencoCadmus for an undisclosed sum. ProvencoCadmus was placed in receivership on August 3 owing $45 million to its bankers and capital note holders.

Merchant services provider SmartPay has bought the payments division of eftpos company ProvencoCadmus after it fell into receivership earlier this month, The National Business Review reported. The purchase includes all of ProvencoCadmus’ New Zealand and Australian payments operations, transactional business and all intellectual property relating to payments. Unsustainable debt, lack of investment capital and a weaker than expected trading performance in its retail automation business saw ProvencoCadmus go into receivership on August 4.

Heavily indebted New Zealand dairy farmers face a financial "perfect storm" and many could go under, finance experts warn. Dairy farms are especially vulnerable as farmers face falling commodity prices, increased costs and some farm asset values had dropped by 30 to 40 percent, The National Business Review reported. There were a lot of stressed farmers running significant cash deficits this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Roger Wilson told The Press.

Jobless numbers have made the highest quarterly jump for more than 20 years as the recession finally translated into mass job losses, The National Business Review reported. The number of unemployed jumped from 5% to 6% of the workforce in the June quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey released this morning. The rise was well above average market economists' expectations of a jump to 5.6%. It was also the largest quarterly increase since September 1988, which was in the depths of the long 1987-92 recession.

Debt-ridden Eftpos technology company ProvencoCadmus, whose major shareholders include some of New Zealand's richest people, yesterday called in receivers after failing to secure support for its badly needed recapitalisation from key investors, The New Zealand Herald reported. A few hours after its shares were suspended from trading on the NZX yesterday morning, the company issued a statement saying it had asked its bank ANZ National to appoint receivers, "as the company will not have sufficient funds to meet its working capital requirements".

British clothing and footwear retailer JD Sports Fashion Plc said on Tuesday it has further diversified its business with the acquisition of rugby brand Canterbury for 6.5 million pounds ($11.01 million). JD said it purchased the key trading assets and trade of Canterbury Europe Limited along with the global rights to the Canterbury and Canterbury of New Zealand brands, which are over 100 years old, from the firm's administrators.

Australian-based clothing company Pacific Brands has finally completed the closure of its New Zealand factories, with its Christchurch and Palmerston North plants permanently shutting down over the next two days, The National Business Review reported. The company, which produces labels such as Bonds and Jockey, first announced the closures in March as part of a new strategy which also saw seven Australian factories close. Last month, the clothing company revealed it had raised $326 million in a share offer, with Pacific Brands looking for working capital and money to pay off debt.

The National Distribution Union is calling for an overhaul of New Zealand's receivership law after some redundant Lane Walker Rudkin staff are unlikely to see their full entitlements, The Press reported. More than two months after being made redundant, most of the 186 LWR workers have received 55 cents in the dollar after money was put into bank accounts in the past few days. However, the 55 cents was based on the total employee preferential entitlements, which is limited to $16,420 under law.

A unit of National Australia Bank Ltd. said Thursday it could face a tax bill of up to NZ$654 million plus possible penalties after the nation's High Court ruled against it in relation to a long-running tax dispute. Bank of New Zealand said it is likely to appeal the decision, which relates to amended tax assessments for six structured finance transactions with offshore parties between 1998 and 2005. The amount of tax in dispute totaled NZ$416 million. The bank could also be liable for interest of NZ$238 million as of June 30.