Sunday Business Post
The latest results from a Red C poll are as follows:
Fianna Fáil 27% (+3%)
Fine Gael 24% (-1%)
Sinn Fein 14% (-2%)
Inds 14% (+2%)
AAA-PBP 4% (-1%)
Ind Alliance 3%(-1%)
Labour 5% (-)
Soc Dems 4% (-)
Green 4% (+1%)
Renua 1% (+1%)
Other findings from the poll:
– 74% want a Brexit minister.
– 56% say our relationship with Britain is more important than our relationship with the rest of the EU.
– 56% say the government should hold a referendum in Ireland to let the people vote on the final Brexit deal when it comes on the table.
– 28% think Ireland should leave the EU if Brexit leads to a hard border or trade barriers betusn ROI and the North.
The IDA will not renew its support for the Connect Ireland scheme. It was hoped to create over 5,000 jobs and just over 10% of that number was created.
As AIB gets itself “IPO ready”, it is looking to sell off various portfolios of non-performing loans. One book, of €1.8bn, is currently on the block and is likely to be bid on by Cerberus and others. Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) are supposed to account for 15.5% of the total AIB loan book. The state-owned bank is also increasing the number of summary proceedings against non-performing debtors.
Cameron O’Reilly’s Landis + Gyr company will be contenders for winning the ESB smart metering tender; 1.8 million homes will need to be smart metered at a cost of €180m.
Jimmy Sheehan’s plan to sell his stake in the Blackrock Clinic to Larry Goodman for €16m has hit a bump. There is a view that, based on the existing shareholder’s agreement, all shareholders need to approve this deal. It will play out in the High Court. It is not clear which shareholders will not approve it, but there must be some or it would not be going to court I guess.
Eddie O’Connor’s Mainstream Renewable plans to raise at least $3bn globally for solar and wind power projects it is looking at. O’Connor is leaning towards creating a grey market in shares in 2018 ahead of a full IPO. O’Connor is interviewed and he said they are not focused on Ireland as the current interconnectors infrastructure is not set to take any more capacity and Britain is likely to be closed to importing our electricity post-Brexit. He said Theresa May only wants to achieve one thing “and that’s keep the immigrants out”. O’Connor owns 40% of the company, Investec owns 31%.
Richard Barrett and Cormac Doddy experienced first-hand how hard it is to meet the necessary compliance to get Chinese investment and they have set up HXL group which is an app that streamlines the process for anyone taking in investment from China.
There are various instalments on Project Eagle.
There are reports from the Sean Fitzpatrick trial.
Luxembourg appears to have beaten Ireland to get AIG to redeploy British jobs in light of Brexit. It is suggested their Central Bank and regulations were more favourable.
Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, has invested in a €200k fundraise for improper butter founded by Elaine Lavery and Hannah O’Reilly.
Matt Cooper has a two-page obituary of Owen O’Callaghan RIP (1940-2017).
Voxpro is opening a new office in Bucharest, Romania, which is expected to house 200-250 people. The outsourcing firm expects to have 3,000 people before the end of the year.
Hostelworld announced numbers last week; its share price is currently £2.10, having peaked at £2.99, but hit a low of £1.27. Its performance was flat in 2016, not helped by European terrorist attacks. It is expected to grow into the future at least as fast as the overall hostel market, which is expected to grow by over 7%.
There is a profile of new Sinn Féin NI leader Michelle O’Neill
Seabrook Technology in Cork has won a €1m deal with Siemens which will see it become the main distributor of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software in the manufacturing sector.
Northern Irish diagnostic imaging and laboratory information systems company Cirdan is announcing its growth plans in the Business Post. It received €2.6m funding from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund and €1.2m from Belfast firm Kainos in an equity round last year, along with support from Invest NI.
There is a management matters section courtesy of the IMI and there is a picture celebrating the UCC/IMI merger.
Róisín Burke heard whispers that Dunnes, a forecourt operator and Aramark have been chasing the very successful Base Wood Fired Pizza to open in their stores. Founder Shane Crilly did not deny it was in talks with such groups when she called him. Stephen Cooney and Brian O’Malley came in for a 49% stake soon after it was set up. It has five units currently and is expecting to hit €6m turnover for 2017 and plan to get to €10m. Corporate catering accounts for 30% of sales.
Ian Guider comments on the high senior staff turnover in Permanent TSB. COO Toby Clements left last week and chairman Alan Cook, FD Glen Lucken and marketing boss Niall O’Grady left in the past year.
Jack Horgan-Jones has a special on the non-bank lending space.
Sunday Independent
Munster Rugby is hoping to auction off the naming rights for Thomond Park this year. The province is reported to have pitched the naming rights to 10 companies.
Bank of China (BOC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) have both held talks with the Central Bank about a possible relocation to Ireland from London. This follows the news during the week that Barclays Bank is adding 150 staff to its existing 100 in its Dublin office.
Richard Curran’s piece this week covers:
– The Dow Jones broke 20,000 this week, continuing the “Trump Bull Run” on Wall Street. Curran raises a concern on the speed of the value increase. It took 483 trading sessions to move from 18,000 to 19,000 and only 42 to move from 19,000 to 20,000. This has resulted in average company valuations moving even higher, pushing the average valuation up from 15.5 times their expected earnings to a level of 17.3 times. A lot of this bull mentality has been put down to Trump’s commitment to cut taxes and reduce regulations.
– Barclays move to create an additional 150 jobs in Dublin can be seen as a positive development. The company is preparing a contingency strategy in the event it loses access to the European single market.
– Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary reaffirmed his belief that Brexit will have a negative impact on his business during the week. The company is potentially more exposed than most other airlines, as one-third of Ryanair’s 120m passengers fly from UK airports.
– Paddy Power Betfair reported a “customer friendly” fourth quarter in 2016 as customers “hit” the bookmaker for £40m, with £5m of this attributable to Trump’s win. Overall revenues were strong, up 18% in the quarter.
Padraic White, former head of the IDA, believes that Ireland is facing significant threats to its ability to continue to attract foreign direct investment. He highlights in particular the EU’s “attack” on our tax regime, Brexit and the Trump presidency.
A new report by Core Media and the Association of Advertisers in Ireland suggests that for every €1 invested in advertising, there is a net return of €5.44.
Some of Davy Asset Management’s outside bets for 2017:
– Amazon could buy Twitter.
– Microsoft could buy Salesforce.
– Apple could buy Tesla with Tim Cook stepping down and Elon Musk taking over as CEO.
– A trade war between the US and China.
– Another cold war between the US and Russia if evidence emerges confirming Russia’s suspected involvement in the US elections are released.
– The Chinese Yuan to strengthen against the US dollar.
Some 70 TV and movie productions benefited from €43.2m in tax breaks last year.
US real estate giant Hines is seeking c.€160m for the sale of five office blocks at Cherrywood Business Park. Hines purchased the 400-acre Cherrywood Business Park for €270m in 2015.
Irish software company OpenApp has won a €5m contract with the EU to develop a health app to speed up the medical diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases across member states.
More than €100m of PRSI payments owed by businesses who got into trouble during the recession have been written off by the Department of Social Protection.
The British budget retailer Iceland is planning to add to its existing 12 stores in Ireland with new stores to open in Tallaght, Galway and a third undisclosed location in Ireland this year.
Eir has been granted approval by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to create two new sports channels. The introduction of the two new channels will allow the broadcaster to show three GAA matches at the same time.
Glanbia has announced that it is in “advanced discussions” with local co-ops to build a cheese and whey plant in Michigan. The venture is estimated to require an initial capital investment of c.$400m and will be 50:50 owned by Glanbia and the local co-ops. Once up and running, Glanbia will be the largest producer of American-style cheddar in the US.
John Reynolds has a very interesting interview with Alex O’Cinneide. O’Cinneide runs the €320m cyber security VC fund Paladin Europe.
Sean Gallagher meets with John Flahavan, managing director of the 230 year-old company Flahavan’s and the sixth generation of the family to run the business. Among some 45 other products, Flahavan’s is the maker of the breakfast staple, Flahavan’s porridge.
Sunday Times
Tech giants PayPal, Google and Facebook sought reassurance from the government about Ireland’s tax regime following last year’s ruling by Brussels that Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland amounted to state aid.
Brian Carey’s agenda piece this week:
– The tracker mortgage scandal and ongoing investigation by the Central Bank will unlikely lead to individual staff members being reported to the Gardaí or criminal charges being pressed. Carey thinks the matter will be dealt with by way of hefty fines against the bank.
– ISS, an investor advisory firm, is recommending shareholders in Greencore reject a motion to double chief executive Patrick Coveney’s potential bonus of two times salary under a new proposed Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP). They believe the profit target to achieve the bonus is not high enough as the profit target was only raised marginally on last year. By way of comparison, Paddy Power Betfair’s chief executive, Breon Corcoran, can earn four times his salary in bonus, albeit in “exceptional” circumstances.
– The finance minister, Michael Noonan, has hinted strongly at a summer flotation of AIB. He is looking to sell c.20% of the bank and will look to raise €2bn-€3bn.
Universal Pictures has teamed up with Irish cinema app developer Usheru to sell tickets to the new film Fifty Shades Darker. Usheru collaborated with Universal on a website that enables cinema goers to buy tickets for the movie at the cinema of their choice in Ireland.
The liquidator of Custom House Capital (CHC), which collapsed six years ago leaving a €56m hole in clients’ funds, has issued legal proceedings against the investment firm’s former auditors, KSI Faulkner Orr. Niall Brady has an article later in the paper on the CHC liquidation and the impact it has had on some of its investors.
Cormac Lucey does not believe we are in the middle of a property bubble as the fundamental fuel of a bubble, free flowing consumer credit, is absent. He points to the fact that credit volumes are actually shrinking.
Norwegian Air has invested €93m into its Irish subsidiary as it prepares to offer flights from Cork and base most of its transatlantic service here.
The government is expanding the review of the capital programme to plan for an expected population surge over the next two decades, the Taoiseach has said.
John Malone, the billionaire chairman of Liberty Global, owner of Virgin Media, has spent more than €40m on a complete overhaul of Humewood Castle in Co. Wicklow.
WeWork, a New York group that runs trendy serviced offices in 14 countries, aims to launch in Ireland with two large office locations in Dublin. WeWork is understood to be seeking upwards of 10k sq. mts. of space in each location.
The government is stepping up its efforts to court Chinese asset managers and banks to Dublin as an alternative to London amid uncertainty caused by Brexit.
GameStop continues to expand in Ireland despite an increase in losses at the games and gadget retailer last year. The group, which has 50 stores in the Republic, made a €2.3m pre-tax loss in the financial year to the end of January, up from €1.4m the previous year.
Investors in Barricade, a promising IT security company, appears to have made a small return when the company was acquired last year by the UK-listed IT group Sophos. Sophos paid €1.7 cash for Barricade, which had raised at least €1.2m from backers including Frontline Ventures, Tribal Ventures and angel investors.
Pinewood Studios, the British film production group, will no longer act as an agent for the fledgling Troy Studios in Limerick. It’s understood that Troy will now invest directly in its own marketing resources which will represent the company internationally and at film forums.
Workers under the age of 25 account for as much as 90% of the increase in labour force participation by Irish adults, according to economists at the Central Bank.
Waste collector Greenstar made a €7.6m loss last year, prior to its takeover by rival Panda.
Paddy McKillen Jr. has bought the former Aungier House pub in Dublin and is planning a €1m overhaul. McKillen and business partner Matt Ryan aim to restore and refurbish the building; plans include bars on three floors and roof garden. They have also recently acquired the Howl at the Moon superpub on Lower Mount Street for a reported €3.2m.
Nick Webb’s inside track this week:
– While residents of Beacon South Quarter apartments in Sandyford face a bill of €9.1m to make the building fire compliant, Paddy Shovlin, who developed the Beacon, appears to be very active in the UK property market, having gone bankrupt in 2012.
– Donald Trump has just stood down as a director of two Irish companies associated with the Doonbeg golf resort he acquired.
– Seamus Fitzpatrick’s Capvest has been linked with an €82m bid for UK dentistry group Southern Dental.
– Iain MacDonald is looking for “online retailer ventures” to fund or build out. McDonald, who sold telco Perlico to Vodafone for €80m in 2007, formed Atlantic Island Investments with Stephen Forbes, former head of product at fintech group CurrencyFair.
Brian Carey’s business focus column is on Aryzta this week which has seen its share price plunge on the back of profit warnings. The profit warning announcement wiped c. €1bn from the company’s value, increasing the pressure on CEO Owen Killian. Chairman Gary McGann is being called upon by investors to be the “catalyst for change” at the embattled food company. According to the Sunday Business Post, analysts do not expect Gary McGann and the board to put pressure on Killian to step down unless they have somebody to take up the mantle.
Philip Connolly’s business interview is with Mike Quinn, chief executive at Bord na Mona.
Sandra O’Connell presents some of the opportunities the Chinese market presents for Irish companies and who can assist with entering it.
3.3% – @centralbank_ie’s projected growth in GDP in 2017, a decrease of 0.3% from its prior estimate. @IrishTimesBiz
36% – The annual growth rate in the value mortgages for 2016, according to figures released by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
20,000 – The level breached by the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index yesterday, the first time in history. @IrishTimesBiz
€4.9k – The average income generated from being an Airbnb host in Dublin last year, according to @Airbnb. @IrishTimesBiz
€1.2bn – Total level of Irish investment in UK stocks and bonds as of 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 30%, according to the @centralbank_ie
c. 60% – Percentage of Irish consumers that had to borrow to cover their essential household bills, according to a survey by @Switcher_ie.
1.1% – The inflation rate across the eurozone for the month of December. @IndoBusiness
€4.5bn – Combined deficit of defined-benefit pension schemes in companies listed on the ISEQ for 2016, a year-on-year increase of 50%.
2.5% – The average percentage increase in pay Irish companies are preparing to give its employees this year, according to @PwCIreland.