Spark faces takeover tussle
Vodafone has thrown a spanner into Spark’s takeover bid for NZX-listed telecommunications firm TeamTalk. TeamTalk said it had reached an agreement to sell 70 per cent of its rural broadband business, Farmside, to Vodafone for $10 million. Spark had already launched an offer to buy TeamTalk outright for $22m and TeamTalk shareholders will now have to decide which, if either, of the competing bids to accept. Spark’s bid is contingent on clearance from the Commerce Commission. TeamTalk said its directors’ advice remained that Spark’s offer was not in their interests. If the Vodafone deal went ahead, TeamTalk would continue to run the Farmside business under a management contract.
NZ Post names new CEO
New Zealand Post has named an internal candidate as its new chief executive, with finance director David Walsh to head the company from May. Walsh has been NZ Post’s chief financial officer for two years, having previously held roles at KiwiRail, Fonterra, Shell NZ and the New Zealand Racing Board. He replaces Sir Brian Roche, who announced he was leaving the company at the end of 2016. NZ Post chairwoman Jane Taylor said Walsh had been instrumental in ‘‘building the performance and capability’’ of the company’s finance team. Candidates from New Zealand and overseas had been considered, she said.
Builder oversteps boundaries
A Northland builder has had his licence to build cancelled for working without building consents and going beyond his licence class. The Building Practitioners Board had cancelled Grant Tromp’s status as a licensed building practitioner (LBP) for doing renovations work that did not meet code and was beyond his level of competence. The board said Tromp had breached the Building Act three times. He had been engaged to carry out renovations on a kitchen and to extend and enclose the house’s existing porch into a new room. The work did not comply with either the code or relevant standards. Tromp also undertook design work, which the board said was beyond his abilities as a carpentry LBP.