Today in Business: September 8, 2025

Welcome to Today in Business - Powered by Spark for Business, an experimental AI podcast by the New Zealand Herald.
Each weekday, we bring you five stories, the best of the New Zealand Herald business journalism, summarised and delivered by an AI voice as an easily digestible recap.
It's Monday, September 8, 2025, and here are five stories you should know about.
ANZ has agreed to pay three point two five million dollars after admitting breaches of fair dealing laws, that led to customers being overcharged millions in interest and wrongly applied fees. The Financial Markets Authority found ANZ breached the Financial Markets Conduct Act in two cases involving overdraft fees and mortgage incentives. More than 209,000 customers were overcharged a total of four point three million dollars. ANZ has remediated affected customers. The FMA says ANZ made false representations in both cases. The bank accepted findings and paid the settlement to the Crown in lieu of a pecuniary penalty.
In other news, Inves-tore Property has confirmed a conditional agreement to acquire the Silverdale Centre in Auckland for 114 million dollars from Stride Property. The large-format retail complex hosts 39 tenants, including Woolworths and The Warehouse, alongside Noel Leeming, Chemist Warehouse and Supercheap Auto. Inves-tore briefly went into a trading halt before announcing the deal. The company also outlined a capital raise through convertible notes and changes to its management arrangements with Stride Property, which will be presented to shareholders. The Silverdale Centre is located in one of Auckland's fastest-growing suburbs.
Meanwhile, a Christchurch retirement village resident has voiced ongoing concerns after a failed complaint over an alcohol ban in communal areas. Jean Sparrow, of Condell Retirement Village, says her group was wrongly accused of drinking alcohol at a Christmas Day 2023 gathering in the barbecue area, despite only having non-alcoholic drinks. Disputes panellist David Carden ruled the owners had not breached residents' rights, upholding the alcohol ban and management's actions. Company director Paul McCormack says liquor laws had been breached for years without a licence, and the owners chose not to obtain one. The dispute cost $20,000, with residents ordered to pay $2100.
In technology, Amazon Web Services has confirmed its power purchase agreement with Mercury is active. Under the deal, Amazon is buying about half the output from a wind farm near Palmerston North, equal to 185 gigawatt hours annually. The wind farm totals 102 megawatts with average production of 370 gigawatt hours per year. Amazon reportedly paused its own Westgate data centre build, but is consuming large electricity volumes, indicating substantial ongoing operations through alternative infrastructure arrangements in New Zealand data facilities.
Finally, turning to markets, strong demand from Europe lifted New Zealand red meat exports to 864 million dollars in July, up 19 percent despite volumes falling seven percent. Sheepmeat exports reached 22,779 tonnes, down 11 percent, but values rose 21 percent to 308 million. The European Union was the largest sheepmeat market by value at 85 million. Beef exports totaled 35,847 tonnes, down four percent, but values climbed 17 percent to 402 million. The United States was still the top market at 262 million, while China reached 175 million. The United Kingdom had the strongest growth, with beef exports up more than sixfold.
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