L'Oreal is considering a bid of US$44 ($58.16) a share for Avon, the UK's Daily Mail reported.

A company owned by New Zealand's richest man plans to market $US3 billion ($NZ4b) of debt to fund its takeover of a United States plastic bag manufacturer.

It's not just Chinese investors looking to buy NZ food companies.

After leaving Christchurch's Xavier College at 16 Eric Watson's first job was as a butcher's apprentice. He later became a sales and branch manager at Whitcoulls, then a manager at Xerox, before beginning a business career.