Sunday Business Post
There is plenty on Trump, Martin McGuiness’ resignation and the Northern Ireland political situation.
The Business Post reveals that a pool of 250 Bus Éireann drivers out of 1,359 “is kept in reserve in garages around the country as part of their normal rostered hours to cover annual leave, sick leave and auxiliary demand”. It is getting to crisis point, and with losses of €8m, surely practices such as this will have to be tackled.
Alan Dukes (former Finance Minister), Patrick Honohan (former Central Bank Governor) and Noble Prize-winner Edmund Phelps all warn about the effects of Brexit on Ireland and many suggest we need our own voice during negotiations. Phelps also suggests Ireland should lower our corporation tax rate in advance of Trump lowering US tax rates. There is a five-page special on Brexit and Ireland.
Leo Varadkar told a group of FG party members that they should look at what happened in the North and be ready for an election. The same day on CNBC Enda Kenny said there was no chance of an election this year.
Kids’ TV show maker Jam Media is raising €28m to fund three new productions.
John Daly is stepping down as chairman of Goldman Sachs. The Dubliner is bullish on the US market’s prospects post Trump, but does remind us that “Since the trough of the Financial Crisis in 2009, the US market has returned nearly 300%, which is one of the longest bull markets we’ve seen since World War II”. He thinks a hard landing in China is a big global market risk at the moment.
“The Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) is warning 2017 may be the year of housing repossessions unless dramatic action is taken to assist distressed mortgage borrowers.” There is still 34,500 mortgages in arrears of two months or more.
Irish e-learning company Touch Press has just raised €10m from Enterprise Equity, the publisher of Folens and others.
Sean Reilly’s plan to build 141 houses and 12k sq. meters of commercial space in Lusk is meeting significant opposition from some locals.
Frank Gleeson of the Mercantile Group is being taken to court by EMI-MR Investment Company. What the argument is about is not clear from the article.
BMS Finance “has advanced €16 million to seven firms since launching last March”. Its most recent deal was providing €1m growth capital to icabbi, a software service for cab drivers. Providing €5m to Chris McCann’s XS direct was another deal it did recently.
The Davy/BDO EIIS fund has invested €1.5m to help scale the Happy Pear’s retail offering. Aidan O’Byrne, former CFO of Valeo who now has his own practice, OBK, advised Stephen and David Flynn, the brothers behind the Happy Pear brand.
Independents4change TD Clare Daly is interviewed in the Business Post.
Mark Reynier has spent over £14m on his Waterford whiskey firm, including the £6m to purchase of the old Guinness brewery in Waterford.
Freshii Ireland is looking to expand from its current 6 stores to over 50 in the next five years. Freshii’s Irish business is led by former Aryzta senior executives Dave O’Donoghue and Cormac Manning. Freshii was exhibiting at a health and wellness event earlier in the week. Other exhibitors included Meaghers Pharmacy and Nue Water. Nue Water, which is currently raising €300k in private equity and Carlow LEO funding, was founded by Colin Tierney with the support of Stuart Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Power accountants. It has over 60 micronutrients in its flavoured water and is listed in SuperValu and has just agreed a deal with BWG.
Jerry Conlan has acquired the Globe pub from Greg Kavanagh. The amount is estimated at €3m and it is understood Conlan is backed by Garrison Capital.
John and Francis Brennan are interviewed and they talk about the investment they have brought in for some upgrades to the Park Hotel in Kenmare.
There is a profile of Dermot Earley, CEO of the GPA.
There are a few substantial announcements in the Done Deal section:
– Silvercloud Health has taken in €8.1m in funding from B Capital Group.
– Steeltech Sheds is investing €5m in its business; the main focus is to take on the UK market, which is only now really beginning to embrace steel sheds over timber and concrete sheds.
GT announced its new partners in the Business Post. Dara Kelly (Advisory, Limerick), Jason Crawford (Audit) and Niamh Meenan (Financial Services Audit).
There is a focus on Paperless and Timeless accounting and ICT in schools.
Barry J Whyte reflects on the sale of Fyffes to the Sumitomo Corporation, which was voted through officially last week and is expected to close shortly. McCann’s roots go back to when Charles McCann set up his first greengrocer shop on Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk, in 1902. The Japanese company has similar roots and the cultural background seems to align. The purchase of Fyffes for £27m by Charles’ son Neil (aka Neily) McCann was an inspired buy. The Sumitomo deal negotiated by current chief executive, David (Neily’s son), is a 40% premium to the prior peak share price. David will continue as chief executive and his brother Carl continues to run Total Produce where the McCann family have an 11.6% stake.
Sunday Independent
The Irish Stock Exchange sees an opportunity in Brexit and it putting itself forward as a means for UK companies to get access to European capital. The paper reports that a number of UK firms have already made enquiries.
The VC-backed maker of 3D printers, Mcor, is seeking to raise another €5m to fund the scaling of the business with an additional 100 employees expected to be added. The Louth-based business founded by brother Conor and Fintan MacCormack has raised €16m to date and already employs 50 staff. Mcor’s customers include Disney, Boeing, NASA and Toyota.
Richard Curran’s piece this week:
– Curran muses over the Department of Finance’s chief economist’s projections pre-Brexit for what might be the fall-out for Ireland, notably 40,000 job losses and an additional €20bn added to the national debt.
– Ardagh is successfully working its way through the refinancing of its €8bn debt facilities. It is benefiting from cheaper rates and pushing out repayment dates. It plans to have just €265m repayable before 2021. Curran notes the logic is to provide the company with time before it looks to IPO to pay down debt and fully integrate its new businesses. The rationale for a small IPO, an expected float of only c. 5% of the company, is less clear to Curran.
After announcing to employees on December 21st that it had repaid its €2.4bn debt in full, Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore Properties will again be the sponsor for the main race on the final day of Punchestown this year; Ballymore had been the sponsor of this race before it entered Nama.
The Dubai-based carrier Emirates is considering using one of its A380 aircrafts on its Dublin to Dubai route. The A380 is the world’s largest aircraft; Emirates have 89 at present with an additional 50 on order. The move comes on the back of increased competition from Etihad on the route and the introduction by Qatar of the route this summer.
Internet entrepreneur Michael Branagan has been granted planning permission for a €50m development on a 25-acre site in Skerries, North Co. Dublin. The site will include 25 houses (c. 4,000 sq. ft. each), a luxury 44-bed boutique hotel and coastal park and walk ways. Construction is hoped to start this summer.
MML Growth Capital Partners is reported to be in talks with the Irish franchise of Fastway Couriers about a possible investment. The Irish master franchise of Fastway was granted to Andy Hennessy and Gerry Riordan in 2002 and now operates a network of over 250 independent companies in Ireland.
AIB corporate banking will provide €3.5m for the new season of TV series Jack Taylor. The bank is reported to have provided funding for c. 40 projects in 2016 and also in 2016 provided c.€15m to Telegal, a Galway-based live action and animated studio.
Irish family-owned bookmaker Boylesports is targeting the acquisition of 30-40 new stores over the next 12-18 months. The company currently operates c.210 stores on the island of Ireland, with nine more stores due to come online shortly after its acquisition if its acquisition of the stores from Bambury Leinster is approved by regulators.
Sportego, a Kilkenny-based start-up founded by Trevor Keane, is seeking to raise €1m from investors. The company provides sports analytics and social media activation for clubs, fans and sponsors. It counts SSE Airtricity League, the British and Irish Lions and West Bromwich Albion among its clients.
Payment by debit cards rose by 20% to over €30bn in Ireland last year – an average growth of 15% per annum since 2010. This growth in the market pushed EVO, a US payment processing firm and partner of Bank of Ireland, to commit a €9.1m investment into its Irish business, adding 50 new jobs to its existing 120 in Dun Laoghaire.
Healthy frozen food start-up Strong Roots has agreed a deal with UK retailer Waitrose to list in 200 of its stores. This adds to the c.1,000 listings the company already has in Ireland. The company is targeting revenues of €3m in 2017 on the back of the deal. The business, formed in 2015 by Samuel Dennigan, has two products and plans to launch eight new products in 2017.
With European and Irish bank stocks up over the few months, Michael Noonan said in the Dáil last week that the current position provided a “window of opportunity” for the sale of some of the government’s stake in AIB. Dan White reports in the paper on the uncertainty in the banking sector and the likely need for Minister Noonan to lower his price expectation for the previously reported 25% stake to be put to market.
Samantha McCaughren has an excellent interview this week with Dalata’s Pat McCann. Dalata, founded by McCann in 2007, just as the property melt-down was beginning in Ireland, is now Ireland’s largest hotel operator with 30 hotels and is now setting its sights on the UK where it already operates 10 hotels.
Following Theresa May’s speech this week setting out her plans for Brexit, there is a two-page spread in today’s paper with excellent pieces from Enterprise Ireland chief Julie Sinnamon and Deloitte partner David Carson.
Sean Gallagher this week interviews Robert Hallam on 250KAL. Set up in 2014, 250KAL produces low sugar, low calorie cakes. The business employs three staff from its base in Murrough, Co. Wicklow and is targeting €1m of revenue this year.
Sunday Times
An Post is preparing to launch a full-service current account that will reward customers according to how much they spend. The new account, which will compete directly with the pillar banks, will be targeted at the 1.7m customers who use the post office network each week and is seen as a critical measure to significantly reduce the losses in the business. An Post lost €10m last year.
Brian Carey’s agenda piece this week:
– Donald Trump’s focus on US pharma companies is not good news for Ireland. In Trump’s eyes, big pharma avoids tax by making active ingredients for drugs here and exporting them back to US. Trump sees that as avoiding tax and export jobs. Ireland exports to the US are c.€26bn, the bulk of which are chemicals.
– Carey thinks the Irish grocery market has now settled down and the discounters’ market share won’t change that dramatically as the pace of new store openings has slowed. The market is now SuperValu, Dunnes and Tesco holding close to 25% market share each, with the discounters combined making up the majority of the remaining 25%.
– Toby Clements is stepping down as group operations director at PTSB and is seen as major loss.
– Carey also covers the sale of Lifes2good to Church & Dwight, a US company, for €150m.
Eddie Power, the managing director of British company 2 Sisters, which includes Green Isle Foods, has issued a dire warning that government complacency in the face of Brexit could lead to some companies moving operations to Britain.
IDA Ireland, the state inward investment agency, has turned its attention to the film industry by appointing a business development executive based in California who will be tasked with bringing major films to Ireland.
Cormac Lucey presents the arguments for and against Ireland staying or remaining with the EU. The arguments for and against are finely balanced in his view and are presenting major issues in Leinster House.
An investment in new data centre facilities in Clonshaugh of more than €600m is planned by Amazon, creating 700 construction jobs and up to 120 full time positions.
Only 13 of 54 builders seeking to register for the government’s Help to Buy incentive have been approved so far by Revenue. The slow process has fuelled concerns about possible delays in home buyers getting the keys to their properties under the scheme.
Primeline, a Co. Meath logistics company, has bought Johnson Brothers, one of the biggest sales and marketing distribution firms in the country. The consideration is not disclosed.
Butlers Chocolate is holding out against plans by US private equity firm Lone Star to develop a large retail and office scheme on Chatham Street, a low-rise retail street just off Grafton Street. A number of other operators on the strip including The Steps of Rome and Pasta Fresca restaurants and Ladbrokes bookmakers have agreed deals to surrender their leases. Butlers is determined to remain in the location until the end of its lease in 2021.
Pat Walsh’s Bluebay Ireland Corporate Credit is supporting a management buy-out at Extra Space Solutions, a maker of high quality modular buildings mostly for the education and healthcare sectors. The deal will see the main shareholders, Conor Hanratty and Oisin Buachalla, exit the business. The management buy-out is being led by Ray Doyle. The price is not disclosed; the company made a profit of €3.2m last year.
The former Quinn Insurance business Liberty Insurance has been given a €40m cash injection by its parent company to maintain it solvency reserves.
Jim Lacey, chief executive of National Irish Bank (NIB) when it allegedly facilitated tax evasion by its customers, has been reprimanded by Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Hillstreet Quarries, a stone products business that owns more than 700 acres of land in Roscommon, has launched legal proceedings in a bid to block the appointment of a receiver by investment fund CarVal.
Pinergy, the pay-as-you-go electricity provider which was endorsed by former Ireland Rugby captain Paul O’Connell, has accumulated losses of €11.2m according to recently filed accounts. Founded by business man Enda Gunnell, the company is backed by Peter Coates, owner of Stoke City and Bet365.
Colm Barrington, a former chairman of Aer Lingus, is to be appointed to the board of Nordic airline Finnair.
Maximum Media, the online media company behind the Joe and Her websites, has raised €1m in funding through the Employment and Investment Scheme (EII) as it looks to expand domestically and internationally, bringing the total it has raised under the scheme to €2m.
Bank of Ireland’s branch in the centre of Drogheda has been bought for €4m by Appian Asset Management and Burlington Real Estate.
Nick Webb’s inside track this week:
– Denis O’Brien is a backer of Aspinall Capital, a low key investment house based in London’s Marlyebone.
– Derry-born actress turned reality TV producer Roma Downey is one of only 42 Twitter accounts followed by Donald Trump; he has 20.4m followers.
– Webb reveals some of the properties owned by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary’s Bradley Investments, which include a significant portion of Altrincham business park in Manchester, office blocks on Fetter and Mark Lane in London, as well as prime properties in Glasgow.
– Fergal Broder’s Sligo-based Lotus Automation, which owns technical engineering group LotusWorks, has taken a hit on building a new 72-turbine windfarm in Oregon and sold it off to local management.
Philip Connolly’s business focus piece is centred on the challenges Brexit presents for the Irish food industry.
Niall Brady’s business interview is with Ed Murphy who bought the Irish master franchise of Home Instead.
Sandra O’Connell interviews some of the country’s organic farmers.
0.0% – Annualised change in consumer prices for the month of December, according to the latest figures from the @CSOIreland. @IrishTimesBiz
$3tn – Trump’s target tax take from plans for a one-off reduced repatriation levy to draw back American corporate money stashed overseas.
40,000 – The potential number of jobs that could be lost as a result of a hard Brexit, according to the @ESRIDublin. @examinerbiz
€12.1bn – Value of distressed Irish loans sold during 2016, almost a quarter of the €49.9bn of distressed debt sold across Europe in 2016.
€800m – The amount by which Irish agri-food sales could decline if Brexit leads to the UK applying WTO tariff rules. @IrishTimesBiz
1.6% – The UK rate of inflation for the month of December, the fastest rate since mid-2014. @IrishTimesBiz
€108bn – The value of goods exports in the year-to-November, a year-on-year increase of 5%, according to @CSOIreland. @IrishTimesBiz
€32.72 – The median income earned per day by Irish people in 2016, a year-on-year decrease of 5%, according to @wef. @IrishTimesBiz
3.7% – The estimated growth in Irish GDP for 2017, according to @DavyGroup economist Conall Mac Coille. @IrishTimesBiz
90% – The occupancy rate of commercial office space in Dublin for 2016, the highest level recorded in 16 years, according to @LisneyIreland.
4.6% – Year-on-year increase in shopper footfall in Northern Ireland for the month of December, the highest growth rate reported in the UK.
8% – The predicted rise in house prices by the end of this year, according to @DavyGroup. @IrishTimesBiz