CORRECT: Kiwibank first-half profit falls 11% on funding, infrastructure costs

CORRECT: Kiwibank first-half profit falls 11% on funding, infrastructure costs
Tina Morrison
(Fixes supplied percentage move in lede and 1st paragraph) By Tina Morrison Feb. 20 (BusinessDesk) - Kiwibank Banking Group, the state-owned lender, posted an 11 percent drop in first-half profit as the costs of funding, infrastructure investment and the Kaikoura earthquake weighed on earnings. Net profit after tax profit fell to $63 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, 2016, from $71 million in the year-earlier period, the Wellington-based bank said in a statement. Kiwibank grew its total lending on home loans, business banking an...