Sunday Business Post
Jim Mansfield Jnr is interviewed in the Business Post and claims conspiracy theories linking him and his family’s business to money laundering, drug gangs etc. have damaged their reputation and all without foundation. After numerous raids, the authorities could not find any proof to establish any evidence to support the rumours.
Bookies may have to introduce anti-money laundering, know-your-client practices in retail betting shops to comply with a new EU anti-money laundering directive by June next year. 97% of bets in bookmaker offices are in cash and no ID is required.
CarVal has issued a number of summons in the past week. They have engaged OSM partners to pursue their actions.
Emails printed by the Business Post from Frank Cushnahan to an Asian business man should be read. It contains a line from Cushnahan “I will of course initiate any necessary documentation to secure the best interests of all”. Mick Wallace is set to up the ante on NAMA during the week. It seems that Wallace obtained these emails and will make them public over the course of the week. Nama have requested Wallace to share all this information with them.
Bernard Brogan is interviewed in the magazine and reveals his ambitious plans for Legacy his sports consultancy business. They are hiring their 10th member of staff and are targeting a 50% uplift in in revenue for 2016/2017.
Gary McGann may have to relinquish some non-executive roles in order to take the chairmanship of Aryzta. He is only allowed to sit on the board of three publicly listed companies. He currently chairs Paddy Power Betfair, remains on the Smurfit board and sits on Green REIT and American Multi Packaging Solutions boards.
Dómhnal Slattery is due to receive this year’s Outstanding Contribution to the Aviation Industry” award at the Aviation Industry Awards 2016.
Datalex signed a big deal during the week that will greatly expand its footprint in China.
“Keystone Group, the Tyrone-based steel lintel and support system manufacturer, is aiming to increase its turnover in Ireland to €20m by 2017 from the present €15m.”
The Russian ambassador to Ireland has ruled out any prospect of the ban on Irish food products into Russia until EU sanctions against Russia are lifted.
Patricia King, general secretary of the ICTU, warns that there is a crucial few weeks ahead. She claims that they are trying to get back what was taken away from them in the down years. Surely a more equitable way to achieve that across the board is to reduce and go towards eliminating the USC? She admits that the Government granting the Gardai €50m of an uplift has been the catalyst for the ICTU to raise the ante on demands. Expect to hear the names of Patricia King and Jack O’Connor of SIPTU in the news a lot over the weeks ahead.
David McWilliams says the unrest among unions is a by-product of our housing crisis as the increased cost of accommodation is eating up what should be disposable income and making everybody feel poor and aggrieved. He suggests that if we linked wages to housing costs it would focus the mind of the government on housing.
Stephen Kinsella reminds us that we have gone bust as a country three times since independence and we need to learn and realise the cash is not there for pay rises. His final sentence is excellent, “Now should not be the time to let a small group force through measures aimed to help the few at the expense of the many”.
Michael Brennan suggests a return to partnership might be the solution.
Greg Hayden MD of Ethos Engineering won the Association for Consultancy & Engineering European CEO award.
Ex-Elan executive Seamus Mulligan’s Adapt Pharma has cornered 33% of the US market for drug overdose products in under a year.
“Boxfish, the data science company founded by Eoin Dowling and Kevin Burkitt, has acquired Sophia, a Belfast firm that specialises in semantic data and content analytics”
Neighbours of Dublin Airport have been a lot more vocal this year with noise complaints which may cause some hurdles for plans for the new runway which was announced earlier this year.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland has become a lot more active in objecting to one-off houses where it sees a risk to traffic. It objected to 800 cases over the past five years and all but 37 applicants were refused planning and a number of those did not get passed an Bord Pleanála. It is lessening the value of road frontage in areas where the Transport Infrastructure see a risk.
Hugh O’Connell writes about our prospects for hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup bid. We do not have the infrastructure to host a World Cup or Olympics but we do have to host a Rugby World Cup.
Graham Clifford talks about how the space industry generates €300m a year for Irish companies.
Robin Gill is making a man for himself with his four restaurants in London and is interviewed in the Business Post.
Damian McDonald is taking over the previously controversial post of director general of the IFA at a time when the industry has a lot of headwinds. Not least the fact that 41% of agrifood and drinks exports are to the Britain. Six of Ireland’s sixty mushroom producers have hit the wall post-Brexit. Elaine Byrne gives McDonald some advice in her article.
Michael Flynn aka “Matress Mick” is profiled in the paper today.
There are a number of focus pieces in the Business Post including:
Mental Health Summit
Managed Network Services
Three Mobile Business
There is also a big feature on Owner-Managed Businesses in the Business Post:
– John Bowe of Mazars Corporate Finance highlights how preparation and advice is crucial for proper strategic decision making in owner-managed business.
– Anya Cummins a Corporate Finance Partner in Deloitte highlights how a succession or exit policy is normally kicked down the road and never truly planned by owner-managers. She highlights how with proper tax planning a sale of a business can mean an owner can get upfront an amount of money that they would not get over a decade.
– John Byrne a partner of Crowe Horwath, who are celebrating 75 years in business, explains how with so much emotion involved a neutral adviser is key for owner-managers to consider their succession/exit options. He explains the business relief is most relevant to those aged 55 to 67 and many miss the opportunity.
– David Gleeson managing partner of RBK says that Irish people are now accepting that 75% of a bigger pie is better than 100% of a much smaller pie and willing to take in Investors who add value.
There are pull-outs galore in the Business Post, in addition to the normal magazine, there is an invested magazine and a healthy Ireland magazine.
There is also a pull-out on EIIS. Firms such as Cantor Fitzgerald, HLN McKeon Gallagher Ryan and Merrion are brokering individual investment opportunities (windfarms, whiskey and others). Hughes Blake/Goodbody and BDO/Davy have pooled funds. There are also a lot of one-off adverts for people to get income tax rebates for investments. In 2015 and 2016 more than 400 companies had investments certified under the EII scheme.
Galway man Dave McSorley is a finalist in the EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Australia. He has set up a series of companies to service the construction markets.
The word on the street from Colette Sexton this week is interesting
“The chief executive of a well-known plc is preparing to step down before Christmas, after a relatively short period with the company”
Emma Kennedy writes about the ticking time bomb that is Defined Benefit Pensions.
Garret Flower is interviewed about his Park PnP app.
Willie Madden is featured in the Movers and Shakers piece. He has taken up the role as head of New Business in Munster for Bank of Ireland.
Sunday Independent
Maurice Pratt, the former chief executive of C&C, and Con Scanlon, former deputy chairman of Eircom, have joined the board of a new health and wellness fund set up by former Merrion Capital chief John Conroy. The fund is aiming to connect the tech and health worlds together and is reportedly targeting to raise €75m. Retired Olympian Eamonn Coughlan and Chris Horn, co-founder of Iona Technologies, are already involved in the venture, providing health and tech advice.
Dermot Smurfit has said that the eurozone will fracture in the next five years and that we need to be prepared to print the punt again. Smurfit is also the features of this week’s interview.
Alan Moloney, producer of the film Brooklyn, and James Morris, founder of TV3 and Windmill Lane pictures, have entered into a partnership with Creative Artists Agency to bring a proposed €80m Hollywood-style film studio to Dublin’s Docklands, to be known as Dublin Bay Studios. The studios will be located in the vacant Glass Bottle site in Ringsend and Bono is said to be lobbying for the studio plan.
Richard Curran this week:
– His main piece this week discusses the expectation gap between the government and public sector unions over pay: “the enormous gulf between what many people believe the State can afford by way of pay increases and what trade unions believe is affordable”.
– He ties this into his next piece on how state subsidies aren’t helping to solve the housing crisis. “Public sector wage demands are partially being fuelled by genuine concerns about the rising price of houses and rents. If the housing crisis feeds into public sector wage increases it could prove very expensive indeed for all taxpayers. House prices are up by more than 14% in the last two years and rents are now 10% higher than at the peak of the boom.
– Finally, he discusses Kingspan’s €250m private placement loan note in the US during the week at a coupon of 1.48% which is being used to pay down other more expensive debt.
Fastway Couriers have appointed Mazars Corporate Finance to carry out a strategic review of their business in Ireland. The Sunday Independent reports that the process could lead to a sale of the business and that there has been interest from private equity firms both in Ireland and the UK.
Johnny Ronan’s 7,000 sq ft Venetian-style palazzo in Dublin 4 has received planning permission for full embassy use and is now on the market quoting a rent of €45 per sq ft. Several foreign embassies and at least one high-net-worth individuals have reportedly expressed interest.
Lincor, an Irish medtech firm set up in 2003 by former Apple employees Pat O’Donnell, Enda Murphy and Dan Byrne, has postponed a planned IPO and merger with Hills Healthcare Solutions the healthcare business of Australian-listed Hills due to stock market volatility.
Mediolanum Asset Management, an Italian-based financial services giant partly owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, generated fee income of €26.5m and post-tax profits of €16.6m in its Dublin branch in Ballsbridge. Berlusconi’s Fininvest is reported to have a 30.1% stake in the company.
Bord Gais Energy, the gas and electricity supplier to 680k residential and business customers, is investing €24m and adding headcount in an effort to expand its servicing and repairs division as part of a three-year plan. As part of the plan, the company will invest €8m annually and aims to double the number of its “home-servicing” customers to 100k by 2019.
Dogpatch Labs, a co-working space for tech startups owned by Patrick Walsh and based in the Liffeyside CHQ building, has announced that it is tripling in size to 40k sq ft to cater for the increased demand for young tech firms seeking Dublin office space. Currently, there are 45 companies in the facilities which are being charged €400 per month for a desk.
“Commercial television station TV3 has commissioned a second Irish series of the hit format Gogglebox, representing a multi-million investment in production, the station, which is owned by Virgin Media, was last week given the go-ahead to take over struggling station UTV Ireland for €10m”.
C&F Group, a Galway-based wind turbines maker and contract manufacturer, has opened a subsidiary in Japan where it is targeting €50m in sales. The group have annual sales of €150m and has invested €30m and three years in R&D developing wind turbines specifically for the Japanese market.
Meaghers Pharmacy, owned by Oonagh O’Hagan, has partnered with the Peter McVerry Trust to launch #Wrap4Homless, a Christmas charity campaign aimed to help the 6.7k homeless people in Ireland.
Dan White writes this week on the potential higher bond yields have to derail our economic recovery. With Ireland still owing €200bn and a predicted interest cost of €6.3bn in 2017, interest costs have the potential to gobble up an eighth of 2017 tax revenues. A 1% increase in the average interest rate would cost the exchequer an extra €2.1bn a year. A combination of interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve in the US and the ending of the ECB’s bond-buying programme in March 2017 could lead to bond yields being much greater and quicker than expected.
Dearbhail McDonald has an excellent article on why there should be a public commission into the future of media including the effect of RTE, Social Media, dominant ownership etc. It is no longer a case of looking at one medium and just looking at that channel. She highlights that the greatest risk to “media plurality is financial viability” of many organisations.
There is a good Q&A piece with Suzanne Weldon, the marketing director for BWG Group. BWG Group has over €1.4bn in annual sales and over 1k stores trading under Spar, EUROSPAR, Londis,Mace and XL brands.
Stuart Fitzgerald, a progressive Waterford accountant, has recently received the UK master franchise for Freshii, a Canadian chain of healthy wraps, burritos and juice which just started rolling out in Ireland last year under a separate consortium. He has partnered with Anil Patil who will now spearhead Freshii’s expansion into the UK and Fitzgerald will be the chief financial officer of Freshii UK and is quoted saying: “The plan is to invest €15m over seven years to roll out an estate of 144 company-owned and franchised restaurants”. Patil owns almost 40 Starbucks coffee shops and has previously owned and sold a successful Domino’s Pizza franchise. The Irish franchise is run by two former Cuisine de France executives, Dave O’Donoghue and Cormac Manning and is completely separate.
Sunday Times
AIB is to offer customers who were over charged-interest on their tracker mortgages a full refund of the over-charged interest along with an additional 15% payment and a once off flat payment of €615 to cover any independent financial advice borrowers may wish to seek. This is higher than the 10% additional payment and €400 advice supplement offered by Permanent TSB last year and is expected to set a new benchmark for other lenders; Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and KBC have similar over-charging issues with them.
All three papers dedicate space to Patrick Coveney of Greencore and the company’s recent acquisition of Peacock Foods in the US. The acquisition, valued in sterling by the Times at £594.3m was financed via a £439.4m rights issue and £200m in new debt facilities. Illinois-based Peacock Foods, a manufacturer of convenience food for large US consumer packaged goods consumers, generated £806.5m in revenue and £58.15m in EBITDA last year. Coveney discusses how the takeover might create a giant on both sides of the Atlantic with the combined group reporting £141m in profits in the past 12 months.
Back to the Times, One51 is reported to be in exclusive talks to sell its hazardous waste business, Clear Circle Environmental, to its respective management teams in Ireland and the UK. “The separate deals could be agreed by the end of the year”. “The disposal will see One51’s exit from environmental services and allow it to expand its fast-growing plastics business in Ireland, UK and North America.”
Carin homes, the listed housebuilder which has spent more than €700m acquiring sites since floating last year, expects to have “700 workers on its sites early next year as it scales up it building programme.”
Brian Carey, in his Agenda column, highlights the unsustainable issues with defined benefit pension schemes and rightly likens them to Ponzi-schemes. He worryingly points out the largest of them all, the public service pension scheme.
Carey notes that Paul Coulson’s Ardagh files a registration filing in the US on Friday; a pre-cursor to a public listing. Coulson is reported to be looking to sell 5% of the business, raising about €280m.
Richard Barrett’s Bartra Capital, is looking to build 19 luxury apartments on Merrion Road in Ballsbridge on the site of the former Cedar Lodge guest house which was sold for €5.7m in July this year.
Paddy McKillen Jr’s Press Up Group has plans to reopen the Stella Cinema in Rathmines; it will be modelled after the Everyman Group in the UK and will “open in mid-2017 and show mainly blockbusters and with some arthouse films. “
“Primark veteran Breege O’Donoghue has joined the board of the regional department store chain Shaws.” “Breege was one of the so-called gang of four that masterminded the Primark expansion globally”.
“Ireland is considering applying for a licence to allow IFSC funds to invest in mainland China’s bond and equity markets”.
Unless individual Credit Unions receive Central Bank approval, they will need to return deposit balances in excess of €100,000 to their savers in the New Year, according the minister of finance. This is expected to affect up to 130 credit unions.
Marlin, a British hotel and serviced apartment group owned by Irish man John Corless, has received planning for a new 300-bed hotel on Bow Lane East, close to St, Stephens Green.
Failures in the insurance market continue. This time it is publicans, restaurants and other retail outlets that affected as Gable Insurance, a British-owned with a base in Lichtenstein has had administrators appointed by the Liechtenstein financial regulator.
There is a profile piece on Evan Spiegel, the 26-year-old founder of the $25bn tech company Snapchat.
Sandra O’Connell interviews business owners and entrepreneurs from who have previously attended the Exchange event in Sligo. The Exchange is a voluntary initiative which matches successful entrepreneurs with early stage business owners and it seeks to provide early-stage business owners with as much practical assistance as possible. The event is targeted at businesses which have been up and running for a couple of years and generating revenues already.
The Sunday Times features an interview with Kevin Maughan of Urban Volt. Urban Volt, co-founded by Maughan, Graham Deane and Declan Barrett, pay the upfront cost of retrofitting traditional light with LED fixtures and then makes money by splitting the cost savings with the customer. The firm has completed nearly 100 lighting projects this year and has agreed a €30m funding line with Swiss-based SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund to bankroll the installations.
Cormac Lucey reflects this week on the political phase of the global economic crisis we are now in. Next month the Italians vote on a constitution amendment and in April and May next year the French will vote and they are believed to have an even more unfavourable view of the EU than the British. Lucey thinks it is only a matter of time before the euro zone comes under renewed existential pressure.
Sandra O’Connell also interviews Kate Hyde, the founder and MD of Henparty.ie
Nick Webb writes on his inside track column,
– “Michael O’Leary’s investment vehicle Bradley has been given the green light to build a massive mews at the back of a €2.8m house it bought on Dublin’s Clyde Road
– Former C&C chief executive, Maurice Pratt is reported to be joining John Conroy in his new venture, Acton Capital. Conroy is “putting together a team to invest in the wellness and healthcare sector and will be out raising money in the New Year.
– Trinity Biotech exec Jim Walsh has invested in UCD spin-off Sirius XT.
5.3% – Year-on-year decrease in footfall in Northern Ireland for the month of October, according to research from @the_brc. @IrishTimesBiz
4.3% – The year-on-year growth in consumer spending for October, the slowest rate in 17 months, according to @Visa. @IrishTimesBiz
3.4% & 3.1% – @MoodysInvSvc’s projected growth for the Irish economy in 2016 and 2017, respectively. @IndoBusiness
152 – Number of M&A deals announced in Ireland for the first 9 months of 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 19%, according to @Investec_Irl
1.1% – Year-on-year growth in the value of retail sales in the third quarter of this year, the slowest rate of growth recorded this year.
€86bn – Value of Irish exports in the nine months to September, a year-on-year increase of 5% versus last year, according to @CSOIreland
9% – The year-on-year increase in passenger numbers at Dublin Airport for the month of October. @IrishTimesBiz
4.8% – The jobless rate in Britain for Q3 2016, its lowest rate in 11 years, according to figures from @ONS. @IrishTimesBiz
62.7% – The increase in residential property prices in Dublin since the 2013 trough, according to @CSOIreland. @IrishTimesBiz