Prime Minister John Key has given his qualified support to Jenny Shipley remaining chair of the soon-to-be-listed power company Genesis.

Companies with strong growth prospects and businesses involved in the dairy and agricultural sector are high on the wish list for new listings on the sharemarket.

Don Elder has resigned as chief executive of troubled coal company Solid Energy, effective immediately.

The sale of power shares would create barriers to the Government's ability to provide redress for Maori rights, Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias says.

The Maori Council's final bid to delay the Government's flagship asset sales policy until Maori water claims are dealt with.

It is folly to press on with the partial privatisation of the state-owned power companies when the future of the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter is unresolved, writes Brian Fallow.

Electricity retailer Mercury Energy has announced its first across the board price cuts in a decade.

Fran O'Sullivan looks at five 'nuggety issues' that look likely to hog business headlines in coming months.

Meridian Energy is considering the sale of its 50 per cent stake in the A$1 billion Macarthur wind farm in Australia.

New Zealand's ministers and officials have been given a new set of rules outlining how they can talk about listed companies.

Kiwis are loath to relinquish even a partial ownership share in national assets such as power companies - but the asset sales debate hasn't harmed the Government's polling.

A sinking mine site and Treasury's caution on asset sales are at the top of this year's "Christmas dump" of public announcements, snuck in just ahead of the holidays.

The Maori Council has lost its initial legal bid to delay the partial privatisation of Mighty River Power until Maori water rights are dealt with but is already working on an appeal.

The Maori Council's challenge to the Government's partial asset sales plan is likely to bypass the Court of Appeal and go directly to the Supreme Court early next year in order to meet the looming deadline for the sale of Mighty River Power.

The Maori Council's High Court bid to halt the sale of Mighty River Power ended in Wellington today with a decision likely before Christmas.

The Maori Council's legal bid to block the Government's asset sales programme is based on a "misconception" about the Cabinet's role in advancing the plan, Crown lawyers argued in court yesterday.

Mark Solomon, the chairman of South Island iwi Ngai Tahu, has hit back at Labour MP Shane Jones' criticism that the tribe has "divided Maoridom".

About 200 people have attended a political street party to in Auckland's Karangahape Road today to protest asset sales.