Smelting, Newspapers and hand-bag insurance - Business with Bernard Hickey - Audio

interest.co.nz Managing Editor Bernard Hickey talks buinsess news with RadioLIVE's Marcus Lush including Rio Tinto is considering closing the Tiwai Pt smelter if the price of power from Meridian isn't right after a slump in the price of aluminium. The same day, NZDX bond issuer Meridian Energy announced it had received a request from Rio to reopen negotiations on electricity contracts worth around 15% of total New Zealand electricity consumption, which kick in from January next year and were concluded in 2007. Newspaper circulation continues to fall. All of New Zealand’s major daily papers lost circulation in the year to the end of June, although the number of readers remained largely steady. Here's a bank with too much time on its hands What does every woman want? One French bank thinks it knows the answer: Handbag insurance and a handyman hotline. The pink-and-gold-coloured "Pour Elle" bank card, part of a cut-price summer offer by Paris-based lender Societe Generale, promises to "simplify" women's lives with up to 200 euros (NZ$300) of handbag theft insurance and a dedicated hotline for up to two electrician, locksmith or other handyman callouts per year