Bathurst Resources completes acquisition
Bathurst Resources has completed the acquisition of the shares in New Brighton Collieries under amended payment terms.
The miner had proposed to make a 13-and-a-quarter million dollar payment at the end of this year as part of the deal.
It will now pay the balance of the purchase price through an agreement that gives Brighton 5 percent of gross sales revenue at the mine gate on all coal produced by Bathhurst in the Ohai area.
New Brighton holds a permit next to Bathurst's Takitimu mine in Southland.
Bathurst says the deal helps underpin it supplying coal to the South Island dairy processing industry.
Japanese economy grows less than initially thought
The Japanese economy has grown less than initially thought in the final three months of 2014.
The economy expanded zero point 4 percent in the December quarter, down from an estimate of zero point 6 percent.
Despite the downgrade, the data still confirmed the Japanese economy had crawled out of recession at the end of 2014, after two consecutive quarters in which gross domestic product contracted.
Economists say the Bank of Japan may decide to launch another money-printing exercise to help boost its struggling economy.
HBO launching online streaming service
The HBO network in the United States is launching an online streaming service, HBO Now.
It will be available from April and will compete with rivals such as Netflix and Amazon.
