Vista Group International says a key existing client – Odeon Cinemas Group – has agreed to transition it UK and European cinema circuits to its full Vista Cloud product. The new agreement covers more than 2448 screens across Odeon Cinemas Group’s 309 sites, including all of its owned sites, and a majority of those it manages, outside of the United States.
The agreement is for a five-year term. The first territory to roll-out will be Finland (the Finnkino circuit), with 17 sites expected to go live during the second half of 2025. The UK and Ireland, Odeon’s largest territory with 114 sites, is then expected to follow during 2026. Odeon Cinemas Group is a subsidiary of AMC Cinemas, the largest cinema operator in the world.
T&G awarded about $800,000 in apple IP case
T&G Global has won an intellectual property case on plant variety rights in China, through its subsidiary EnzaFruit.
The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China upheld an earlier ruling regarding the protection of T&G's Scilate (sold as Envy) apple plant variety rights.
In November 2023, the Lanzhou Intermediate Court of Gansu Province ruled the defendant, Lingtai County Youdelong Modern Agriculture Co, had infringed T&G’s intellectual property rights by unlawfully cultivating and selling Envy plant material and apples harvested from the illegally planted materials.
The Supreme People's Court awarded T&G 3.3 million yuan ($800,000) in punitive damages and has required the infringer to cut out the illegal vines.
With the appeal dismissed, T&G is entitled to file a new lawsuit and seek further compensation for the infringement of rights since the initial 2023 ruling.
Wednesday March 12
Operational changes at Metro Glass
NZX-listed glass company Metro Performance Glass has appointed a new director and made organisational change.
It has appointed Steve Hamer to the board. Hamer has been the chief executive of Metroglass’ Australian operations and signalled his intention to retire from the role in September. Hamer would also contract to the company in a part-time strategy role working with the executive director. An Australian country manager, yet to be appointed, would replace Hamer's position when he departs.
The company also announced it has appointed Nick Hardy-Jones to the newly-created role of NZ country manager.
His role will be to lead the New Zealand business and support the leadership team as it implements its revised business strategy.
Hardy-Jones joined Metroglass in 2016 and has been the company’s South Island general manager since 2021.
Fonterra adjusts management roles as Consumer unit sale looms
Dairy co-op Fonterra has tweaked its senior management roles ahead of the sale of its Consumer business, with extended responsibilities for executives Richard Allen and Teh-han Chow.
Allen, appointed president of Global Ingredients last August, will add Fonterra’s Ingredients businesses in China and the Middle East to his remit.
Chow, previously chief executive of Fonterra’s China operation, becomes president of Global Foodservice while remaining its China CEO.
The changes follow the appointment of Rene Dedoncker as CEO-elect of the Consumer business to be divested. Dedoncker was previously managing director of Global Markets Consumer and Foodservice.
Retail spending up, while truck movements down in February
Retail spending using electronic cards bounced higher in February – helped by spending on consumables and clothing.
Statistics NZ data out today showed retail spending using debit, credit, and charge cards rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in February, compared with the month before. Spending on consumables rose $16 million, clothing jumped $3.4m, while fuel spending was flat. Consumers spent less on motor vehicles, large ticket items around the home, as well as fewer trips to cafes and bars.
In actual terms, cardholders made 156 million transactions last month. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $8.6 billion.
Meanwhile, ANZ’s monthly measure of truck movements was mixed, indicating an economy still under pressure.
The light index was up 0.4% last month, while the more volatile heavy index fell 0.2%.
Light traffic measures motorbikes, cars, and vans and is a good indicator of economic momentum in six months, while heavy data measures trucks for an immediate snapshot.
Thursday March 13
Migration gains remain muted, while visitor arrivals shine
New Zealand recorded another subdued migration gain over the year ended January, while tourism continues to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Statistics NZ data on Thursday showed an annual net migration gain of 32,500, compared with a net gain of 121,800 the previous year. The latest gain was made up of a net gain of 76,700 non-New Zealand citizens arriving, while 44,200 New Zealanders departed.
On a monthly basis, there was a net gain of 3600 people, compared with a net gain of 4400 in January last year.
In terms of travel, there were 370,200 overseas visitor arrivals in January, up 43,800 from last year. There were broad gains from most countries, including Australia, China, Taiwan, and the United States.
On an annual basis, there were 3.36 million arrivals over the year ended January, up 343,000 from the previous year.
ASB said inbound tourist had been one of the few bright spots for the economy.
ASIC sues trading house over cybersecurity
Regulator Australian Securities & Investments Commission is suing financial trading house FIIG Securities, which operates in Australia and New Zealand, over alleged cybersecurity failures.
Asic claims that over a four year period to June 2023, FIIG’s failures enabled the theft of approximately 385GB of confidential data, with 18,000 clients notified that their personal information may have been compromised.
FIIG's security failures allegedly enabled a hacker to enter its IT network and go undetected from May 19 to June 8 2023, and steal personal information which was subsequently released on the dark web. The stolen data included highly sensitive customer information, including names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s licences, passports, bank accounts and tax file numbers.
Asic is seeking declarations of contraventions, civil penalties and compliance orders.
Coconut oil company warned by FMA over disclosures
The Financial Markets Authority has warned Whangarei-based Evco Pacific and its director, Neville Montefiore, and former directors Roger MacDonald and Christopher Nathan, for breaching disclosure requirements. The FMA alleges they failed to provide the required disclosures to investors during a share offer in Evco by its parent Evco International between November 2017 and March 2019. The FMA began to look into this after receiving a complaint from an investor.
Evco International was initially the sole shareholder of Evco but on-sold about 16% of its shares to 32 investors based in New Zealand and Australia for about $2.8 million.
The FMA also believes Evco and its directors breached the Companies Act by failing to complete registration of share transfers to maintain a share register, or hold shareholders’ meetings.
Evco started in March 2017 to manufacture coconut oil in Fiji, but is yet to begin operations. Its parent company also owns coconut-avocado oil retailer Cocavo.
Friday March 14
Phishing scam impersonates Booking.com emails, warns Microsoft
Microsoft is warning of an email phishing campaign impersonating online travel agency Booking.com, targeting organisations in the hospitality industry worldwide, and in Oceania specifically.
The campaign uses a social engineering technique called ClickFix to deliver multiple credential-stealing malware in order to conduct financial fraud and theft.
In the ClickFix technique, a threat actor attempts to take advantage of human problem-solving tendencies by displaying fake error messages or prompts that instruct target users to fix issues by copying, pasting, and launching commands that eventually result in the download of malware.
The prompts can appear as guest reviews or queries.
Microsoft suggests email users should check senders' email addresses to ensure they are legitimate, contact the service provider directly, be wary of urgent calls to action or threats, search for typos and hover their cursor over any links to view the full URL address.
Global realtor JLL to scale back satellite NZ offices
Commercial realtor Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) says it's engaged in an "internal consultation process" regarding its operational structure, which NBR understands includes a proposal to close its Christchurch and Wellington offices. The two satellite offices house a combined 31 staff of its total staff complement of 150, with the remainder at HSBC House in Auckland. The NYSE-listed company, active across 80 countries, saw revenues climb by 13% to US$23.4 billion ($41b) for the year to December 2024. In September, JLL recruited Chris Dibble as head of research from Colliers NZ and last month it announced it had appointed a new strategy, design and delivery lead in Sarah Bryant. More recently, it said it had brokered the $180 million sale of the Auckland Intercontinental between Precinct and Singaporean group HPL. A spokesperson for the company said the firm was unable to share details of its staff consultation until the internal process was concluded.
