K3 Insights

New year, New Momentum: Business Confidence Lifts as 2026 Begins

After a cautious couple of years for many New Zealand businesses, the first weeks of 2026 have arrived with a noticeably different tone. Boardrooms are sounding more constructive, pipelines are being reopened, and decision-making is starting to move from “wait and see” to “how do we position ourselves for growth?”

Recent confidence measures back up what many businesses are feeling day to day. NZIER’s latest Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion reported a sharp lift in sentiment in the final quarter of 2025, with a net 39% of firms expecting better general economic conditions, its strongest reading since March 2014. The same survey also pointed to improving trading conditions and rising hiring and investment intentions. 

ANZ’s Business Outlook survey tells a similar story, describing December 2025 business confidence as the highest level in 30 years (net 74% expecting better business conditions), alongside stronger expectations for firms’ own activity. 

Of course, confidence doesn’t mean challenges have disappeared. Cost pressures, capacity constraints in some areas, and sector-by-sector differences still matter. But when confidence turns, activity often follows, starting with planning, then investment, then transactions.

For many organisations, that shift creates both opportunity and urgency: when the market is moving, the businesses that are ready can act faster, negotiate better, and avoid costly missteps.

That’s where K3 Legal comes in.

What Picking Up Looks Like in 2026

When confidence improves, we typically see commercial work accelerate in a few predictable places:

1) Business Acquisitions and Strategic Sales

As optimism returns, many owners and leadership teams revisit inorganic growth options: acquiring competitors, buying a complementary capability, or selling a non-core division to focus on what’s working.

In an improving market, transactions also tend to become more competitive: more bidders, tighter timelines, and greater pressure to progress from early talks to signed documents quickly. With reduced timelines, it is especially important to get legal advice to spot pitfalls and structure everything optimally to get deals across the line.

How K3 Legal Helps:

• Deal structuring (share sale vs asset sale, earn-outs, deferred consideration)
• Due diligence that is focused on value and risk, not just box-ticking
• Sale and purchase agreements, warranty/indemnity and disclosure processes
• Conditions precedent, completion mechanics, and post-completion transitions
• Regulatory considerations (including competition, consumer law, and sector-specific settings where relevant)

2) Capital Raising, Funding and Refinancing

Improving sentiment often brings renewed appetite for growth funding, whether through bank lending, private investment, shareholder funding, or structured arrangements tied to performance milestones.

Funding rounds can move quickly, and the legal detail matters: control, dilution, preference rights, security, and exit provisions will shape the business long after the money lands. 

How K3 Legal Helps:

• Reviewing and negotiating term sheets before they lock in the wrong settings
• Shareholder agreements and governance settings that support growth (and reduce future disputes)
• Security documentation and guarantees
• Clean documentation that stands up in future rounds, audits, and exits

3) Expansion: New Sites, New Markets, Bigger Contracts

When businesses expand, such as opening premises, investing in equipment, adding service lines, or entering new regions, commercial risk shifts from survival mode to execution mode.

That’s often when gaps show up: leases that don’t match growth plans, supplier terms that don’t scale, or customer contracts that don’t protect margin and cashflow.

How K3 Legal Helps:

• Commercial leasing (heads of terms through to final lease and key negotiations)
• Construction and fit-out contracts (risk allocation, delays, variations, warranties)
• Supply, distribution, and key customer agreements that support growth
• Franchising or licensing structures (where expansion needs repeatability)

4) Hiring, Incentives and Capability-Building

NZIER’s survey pointed to firms becoming more willing to hire and invest as conditions improve. In practical terms, growth means recruitment, retention and performance incentives become critical.

Fast hiring without the right foundations can create issues later, especially where contractors, restraint clauses, IP ownership, confidentiality, and commission structures are involved.

How K3 Human Resources Helps:

• Employment agreements, contractor agreements, and workplace policies fit for scale
• Incentive plans (bonuses, commissions, profit share) that are clear and enforceable
• Protecting IP and confidential information as teams grow and roles evolve

5) Getting Contract-Ready as Competition Increases

When the market heats up, so does competition for customers, suppliers, and talent. That can drive faster negotiations and more pressure to sign.

That’s a good moment to tighten templates and standard terms, and to ensure key commercial documents match your current strategy (not the strategy you had three years ago).

How K3 Legal Helps:

• Refreshing standard terms of trade and key templates
• Reviewing high-value contracts (termination, price adjustments, liability caps, service levels)
• Reviewing contracts for regulatory compliance

A Practical 2026 Readiness Checklist:

If you’re seeing green shoots and want to move early, here are five practical steps that can save time and cost later:

1. Get your house in order: confirm shareholding, directorships, and core governance documents are current.

2. Make due diligence easier: organise key contracts, leases, IP registrations, and policies so you’re ready for buyers, investors, or lenders.

3. Stress-test your big contracts: identify which customer/supplier agreements would hurt if they ended or if pricing changed.

4. Check expansion friction points: premises, fit-outs, key hires, and supply capacity are where growth can get stuck.

5. Engage early: the best outcomes usually come from legal input before terms are agreed in principle.

K3 Legal: Commercial Support for a Market that’s Moving Again

The start of 2026 is shaping up as a year where momentum matters. As confidence improves, many businesses will be looking to act: buying, selling, expanding, hiring, raising capital, and locking in new commercial relationships.

K3 Legal is ready to help you take advantage of the improving climate with commercial advice that’s practical, deal-focused, and aligned to what you’re trying to achieve, not just what’s written on the page.

If you’re considering an acquisition, planning an expansion, negotiating major contracts, or preparing for investment in 2026, talk to K3 Legal early so we can help you move quickly and confidently.Top of Form