A strong New Zealand building recovery drove the country's biggest listed entity to push up half-year earnings 5 per cent and leave analysts expecting a strong second half.

BlueScope Steel, Australia's largest steelmaker and owner of the New Zealand Steel mill, has agreed to buy assets of Fletcher

Banking boss Sir Ralph Norris is being tipped by insiders to become the new chairman of New Zealand's biggest listed company.

This column is about two companies at opposite ends of the NZX. The first is Fletcher Building. The other is Renaissance Corporation.

NZ shares rose to a two-month high, paced by Chorus, Kathmandu and Sky Network Television as the prospects of strong economic growth drew retail investors to the equity market.

Mark Adamson, the boss of Fletcher Building, has seen the share price double at New Zealand's biggest listed company.

Councils are being blamed for the high cost of building New Zealand houses, ahead of the role played by manufacturers.

Coping with monsoons, 40°C-plus heat and waiting weeks for internet or telephone connections are challenges of manufacturing in India described by a Fletcher Building boss.

When Ken Lotu-Iiga landed in South Auckland as a child from Samoa, he could speak not a word of English.

The new British-born head of Fletcher Building earned $3.3 million in the year to June 30, according to the NZX-listed heavyweight's latest annual report.

Analysts at two investment specialists have upgraded Fletcher Building's prospects because of recent success.

A Lincoln University building has been shut down after a concerned staff member took a swab of some dust which returned a positive test for asbestos.

Fletcher Building's Winstone Wallboards unit has temporarily closed a plasterboard factory in Christchurch after finding traces of asbestos in the building.

In what turned out to be a tale of two countries, Fletcher Building announced a lift in its annual net profit yesterday, with Australia's economic downturn detracting from a strong showing in New Zealand.

Australia has old-fashioned union arrangements and needs "a dose of Margaret Thatcher," says Mark Adamson, the British chief executive of Fletcher Building.

When Fletcher Building paid around $1 billion for Formica in 2007, the business was only three years out of a financial hole and Chapter 11 bankruptcy.