While our equity or net worth is $70 billion it is $35 billion worse than 2008 due to liabilities, especially debt, growing faster than assets.

Tony Holman writes: The secretive assets sales project highlights the anti-people, anti-democratic nature of the local government structure foisted upon the people of Auckland.

Winston Peters writes: There is a group of people who want to get rid of the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust. But why fix what isn't broken?

Power companies' margins on retail electricity tariffs are unsustainably high, says a new report on listed NZ electricity stocks.

Genesis has raised US$150 million in its first issue of notes in the US private placement market and will use the funds to repay bank debt.

Land bought by Meridian for its controversial $2b wind farm is on the market spelling the final chapter of the failed project.

The Finance Minister says the proceeds from selling state houses are unlikely to be spent on new state houses and may go into the Consolidated Account.

Investors in listed power companies appear to be betting the National Party will retain the government benches at Saturday's general election.

The potential sale of the 14,000ha Lochinver Station (a "ridiculously small amount of land" according to Steven Joyce) to foreign interests raises a couple of important questions.

National's $212 million plan to fast-track regional road projects using asset sales cash is not backed by a strong economic case, OIA documents reveal.

Analysts have mixed views on the outlook for the upcoming earnings season as some of NZ's biggest and most widely held firms prepare to report their annual results.

Auckland councillors are divided on the privatisation of Queen Elizabeth Square in downtown Auckland, but voted 14-7 today to approve in principle the disposal of the land worth upwards of $60 million to Precinct Properties.

Auckland councillors will tomorrow consider the privatisation of Queen Elizabeth Square in downtown Auckland for a mall.

The National Government's asset sale programme is complete but the debate about the process just won't go away.

Prices and who controls them is already an issue for this year's election, writes Fran O'Sullivan. The "market rules OK?" is not the kind of slogan that opposition parties are chanting.

Intense investor interest in the upcoming float of Genesis Energy is forcing a heavy scaling back of broker and institutional share allocations well before the April 14 deadline.

Five research reports into the value of Genesis Energy shares have been released by the NZX this morning. Read them all here.

Pricing for the Genesis Energy share offer means the Govt's controversial partial asset sales programme will just make it over the line for the revised $4.6b to $5b target set after Solid Energy was taken off the block.

The Treasury would have liked more "Mum and Dad" small investors to have bought shares in electricity generators Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy.

The share price for Genesis Energy will likely be set in the mid to upper end of its range in light of the Government's decision to sell up to the full 49 per cent, say analysts.

The government will sell 49 per cent of Genesis Energy after feedback from institutions and brokers gave it confidence it didn't need to reduce the size of the selldown.

Genesis Energy chief executive Albert Brantley, speaking at the launch of the Genesis Energy offer, complained about the company being labelled the "ugly duckling".

The Treasury has finally developed a fair and widely accepted process for the Genesis Energy IPO, writes Brian Gaynor.

Genesis Energy could end up being the most costly sale in the Government's partial privatisation programme as a proportion of its proceeds.