Shares in state-owned power generator and retailer Genesis Energy will be priced in a $1.35 to $1.65 range and include a one-for-15 loyalty bonus share offer as a sweetener.

The Government says shares in Genesis Energy will be priced in a $1.35 to $1.65 range and would include a loyalty bonus share offer.

The average power bill for a family of four will rise by 2.4 per cent this year, Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges said yesterday.

Full details of the Genesis Energy float will be released today including the price range for the shares, a bonus share scheme and the timetable for its sharemarket listing.

Independent research house Morningstar has valued state-owned Genesis Energy at around $1.69 billion to $1.89 billion in total, or about $3.25 to $3.50 a share.

The Govt's move to set the share price for the Genesis Energy float before retail investors have to pay up has won approval from an investment expert.

The Government may end up selling as little as 30 per cent of Genesis Energy over the next month.

The structure of the Genesis Energy float is unusual but makes sense given the complexities of the company, says one investment banker.

The National Government's flagship partial asset sales policy will end in the next month with the sale of Genesis Energy, said John Key.

John Key has confirmed the partial privatisation of Genesis Energy will begin soon but has underlined the sale will be the last one under a National Government.

Newly NZX-listed Meridian Energy beat its prospectus forecast for earnings thanks to high inflows to hydro lakes.

Prime Minister John Key has defended his Government's $30 million payout to the owners of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter after the Greens and Labour said parent company Rio Tinto's US$3.7 billion profit showed the payment was unjustified.

Profits are up 10pc at world mining giant Rio Tinto - in a year where NZ taxpayers paid the company $30m to keep the Tiwai Pt smelter open.

Editorial: The real reason for the asset sales, all along, has been to put all four of the big electricity generating companies on the same competitive footing.

Meridian Energy sold more electricity in the first six months of the current financial year than in the previous year, but prices achieved were significantly lower.

The New Zealand sharemarket is experiencing its strongest activity levels in a decade with a steady stream of new offerings in 2013 and high transaction rates.

The sharemarket has seen a raft of new companies launch on to the exchange in the past 14 months but not all have proved to be winners.

However John Key tries to spin the result, the 67.2 per cent to 32.5 per cent vote against asset sales was emphatic, writes Brian Rudman.

The partial sale of Genesis Energy will go ahead as planned, despite a referendum pointing to public disapproval of asset sales.

Voters have given the Govt's flagship asset sales policy an emphatic thumbs down, ratcheting up pressure for the sale of Genesis Energy to be shelved.

Air New Zealand says its on track to boost earnings by 20 per cent for the first half of the year.

John Key confidently predicted sales would raise more than $7 billion. It's not completed yet but already we are down $1.2b, writes Matt McCarten.