Shell says its campaign to squeeze untapped gas from the Maui field is meeting expectations as it casts it net to far flung parts of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone.

The Government will waste no time selling down Meridian Energy with Treasury officials expected to meet investment bankers on Monday.

Meridian Energy, New Zealand's biggest and most profitable power company, will be partially privatised later this year, Finance Minister Bill English confirmed in yesterday's Budget.

Senior executives of newly listed, state-controlled Mighty River Power are in line for shares in lieu of cash bonuses worth $1.2 million for the year to June 30.

The government will be keen to see Mighty River Power shares trade at a premium to its $2.50 issue price when it lists on the NZX today, fund managers say.

The high number of first-time sharemarket investors buying into Mighty River Power bodes well for the capital markets, says the New Zealand Shareholders Association.

Editorial: Naturally enough, the Government was keen to put the entire blame for what happened on "politicking" by Labour and the Greens.

The Government has secured a mid-range price for its sale of Mighty River Power shares but just one in four of those who pre-registered ended up buying shares.

Solid Energy chairman Mark Ford says the struggling energy group - which is to cut another 105 jobs - is a "very different company'' to what it was a year ago.

Competitive markets don't need regulation. Needlessly over-regulated markets harm the economy and can constrain growth, writes David Parker.

The Grey Power-led petition to force a referendum on the Government’s partial asset sales policy has failed because it did not have enough signatures.

Z Energy's second full year of operation since its sale to local investors by Shell has produced a 13.1 per cent lift in operating earnings, although sales have fallen.

New Zealand's leading business lobby groups say the Labour Party and the Greens have "ambushed" businesses with their controversial electricity policy which they claim sets a "disturbing precedent" for further intervention.

Labour and the Greens have defended their controversial electricity policy after New Zealand's business leaders issued an open letter asking them to withdraw it.

If Meridian Energy had already floated, it's a fair bet that its share price would have dropped after the Opposition unveiled its electricity policy a week ago.