Sunday Business Post
It’s all Apple, we will let you read the considered analysis yourselves across the various publications, including various suggestions that our Anglo-American economy does not belong in the EU block and the consequences for the current Government.
A slimmed down Metro North is still on the books. The €2.3bn project with a 2026 deadline, still involves the 16.5km line from Stephen’s Green to the airport but will involve less undergrounding and less stations than previously envisaged. €165m has already been spent on fees.The favourable Section 110 tax rules availed of by many loan fund purchasers is going to be changed by the Government according to the Business Post.
The Irish company behind the Fairy Door is set to turnover €3.5m this year. It will be on the ground in 20 countries by 2017 and online in 100. It moved its production to China and halved the cost.
An accounting technicality regarding the treatment of funds raised to finance the construction of 2,000 student beds in Grangegorman is stalling the project.
Michael and Tony Harrington, have successfully secured an injunction against the appointment of a receiver by Gulland, a CarVal linked company. “The Harrington’s secured the injunction on the grounds that Gulland had not registered its rights over the mortgage charge on a pair of commercial properties in Cork with the land registry” This action, if applicable across a number of other cases, may slow down the realisation of assets by CarVal and other loan fund buyers.
29-year-old Cork-based Canadian entrepreneur David Coallier looks to have solid Barricade for a handsome sum. This would be his third profitable software exit.
“Limerick financial tech company Cashbook has raised new investment that values the business at more than €2 million.”
Kilian Smith (Halberd Asset Management) has invested more than €30m of funds raised in Singapore from locals and ex-pats in Commercial property in places like Santry and Swords. He is raising more money and thinks an IRR of 15% is achievable assuming little or no growth. He is focusing on assets that need capex or are facing a rent review to get the extra return.
Recruiter CPL is on the acquisition trail with €33m of cash on its balance sheet. Revenue and operating profits rose by c. 10% each to €433.3m and €15.4m respectively in its most recent annual results. Anne Heraty’s stake is worth €56m. She set it up with her husband Paul Carrol in 1989.
There is a special on the Child abuse case hitting the High Courts this week.
There is an article on how key money has returned to the Dublin property market and it is coupled with high rent reviews which has made the economics of making a restaurant pay very challenging. Some landlords are looking for a 50% to 60% increase in rents. Adrian Cummins, head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, has said we are back where we were in at the height of the boom and it seems ridiculous.
Minister for Education and skills, Richard Bruton, is interviewed in the Business Post.
John Feehan, CEO of the six nations, is interviewed also.
60 franchise exhibitors will be pitching up to RDS next Friday and Saturday. There are articles on a number of them in the paper.
There is a focus on lifelong learning also.
The Connected magazine is published this week with a guide to technology in your business.
There is an article on how “Irish people are failing to make a personal link with the effects of Britain leaving the EU.”
According to a Bloomberg extract, the critical mass of stores for McDonald’s franchisees is ten.
Ian Guider suggests the post-Brexit calm is a calm before a storm that will kick off in earnest when Article 50 is invoked.
There is a brief interview with Michael Murphy of Investec ventures who is taking the chairman role of the IVCA having had the same position thirteen years ago.
Currency Fair chairman Richard Rose suggests they could be IPO material in a few years’ time.
Róisín Burke’s word on the street this week is “The Irish Times is doing some succession planning at its highest management level, and is also considering online prospects”
The Investors who turned the Iveagh Baths into a gym have opened their second Gym in the Monte Santo resort in Portugal and are also looking at the possibility of opening one in Quinta do Lago.
Sunday Times
Independent News & Media (INM), is believed to have paid c. €3.5m to take control of seven regional newspapers previously owned by the Celtic Media Group. Celtic Media owns the Meath Chronicle, Connaught Telegraph, Anglo-Celt, Westmeath Examiner, Offaly Independent and Westmeath Independent. Celtic Media will retain control of their printing business. Celtic Media is controlled by management led by Frank Mulrennan and Frank Long, they acquired the papers and the printing division for €5.5m from Dunfermline Press in 2012; Dunfermline Press had previously acquired the business for €65m.
Flyefit, the low cost gym group, posted a healthy €1.8m in pre-tax profits in 2014. The group has almost 25k members and is about to open its seventh gym close to the Dundrum Centre. The business is controlled by Brendan O’Hagan and Sé Kennedy.
Malin, the pharmaceutical group backed by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), has sold stock worth more than €8.6m; this follows the rewriting of an agreement that restricted them it selling stock for 19 months.
Mayo Renewable Power (MRP), the company behind the biggest biomass energy project undertaken in Ireland, has sought the appointment of Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as Examiner, 15 months on from the project commencing. The project had secured a facility of €118.5m from Barclays, Ulster Bank and AIB. Barclays withdrew funding support in May and construction stalled two months later resulting in main contractor, Sisk, boarding up the site. Sisk are reported to be owed €17.5m. €110m has been spent on the project to date and a further €125m will need to be raised in the Examinership process to complete the project.
Brian Carey covers software firm Datalex, which makes software systems that helps airlines and hotels sell car insurance and duty free. The company had a tough time in the 2000’s but is now on an upward trajectory. The value of the company has trebled in the last three years. The value drivers have been a material tie in with Lufthansa and penetration of the Chinese market where it has just picked up its sixth airline customer. Dermot Desmond is the largest shareholder and holds 27% of the company.
The joint committee on finance, public expenditure and reform will meet this week to grapple with the rising cost of insurance which is now one of the hottest public opinion topics.
Dublin Lord Mayor Brendan Carr’s plan for a 1% hotel room tax in the capital could a raise as much as €3m to be used for art initiatives. The proposed plan for a 1% hotel room tax in the capital is being opposed by Tim Fenn, chief executive of Irish Hotels Federation, who says that “hotels are achieving only viability and cannot sustain any further tax burdens”.
Irish communications group Phonovation has launched a system to allow Xbox and PlayStation gamers to buy gaming credit and games via text messages.
CarVal, the US investment group, installed a Receiver to Oriental Handicrafts, a Mayo based retail business over debts of €3.4m.
Elkstone Capital International, is helping fund Ziggurat’s 380-bed development near DIT’s new Grangegorman campus. Elkstone has teamed up with credit fund Opportune to help fund property development schemes. Opportune is headed up by Niall White, former head of loan and portfolio sales in Nama, and is a joint venture between Elkstone Private Advisers and Opportune Capital.
Kevin Stanley, chief commercial officer of Cairn Homes, has sold €1.5m worth of shares in the company.
Murphy Sheehy is to close its Castle Market fabric shop in Dublin city centre after more than 60 years due to a forthcoming rent review where rent is expected to increase by 30-40%. La Maison restaurant, which is based in the adjoining building, has applied to the city council to expand into the store.
Breon Corcoran, chief executive of Paddy Power Betfair, has indicated that the Betfair brand may lead in the future international expansion plans of the group.
The Pembroke Partnership, owned by businessmen Gerry Deane and Paddy Fitzgerald, is seeking planning permission to demolish the former Magdalene laundry in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 and replace it with 25 apartments.
Smartbin, a Dublin waste technology business backed by IT entrepreneurs Ray Nolan and Paul Kerley, has been acquired by Illinois-based OnePlus, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
There is growing disquiet amongst shareholders in the Mike Ashley controlled Sports Direct, which is stemming from flat performance, employing relatives and friends to senior positions, the taking of unexplained strategic stakes in other retailers e.g. Debenhams and House of Fraser and the ongoing negativity surrounding the treatment of employees and working conditions.
An Post is looking to recruit their new chief executive from outside the company this time.
Cormac Lucey can’t see an end to rock-bottom interest rates for the foreseeable future. Bank of Ireland are now looking to apply negative rates to some large commercial customers.
Áine Coffey has a good interview with Niall Dorrian, the chief executive of Linked Finance, the peer-to-peer SME lender. The company has lent €11m to over 500 companies so far. Half of all applications are rejected and default rates are less than 1%.
Nick Webb’s Inside Track has some interesting articles as usual:
- Tom Kennedy is raising €7m from investors to expand Homestay, his social accommodation business. Homestay is a socially-focused alternative to Airbnb; you stay with people who share your interests rather than an anonymous apartment. Kennedy set up Hostelworld with Ray Nolan and cashed out in the €202m 2009 deal.
- CRH chairman Nicky Hartery and ex-Cablecom boss Bruno Claude have stepped down from the board of Eir.
- KPMG are sponsoring a big race in Leopardstown for next weekend’s Champions weekend and Coolmore has an association with 11 entries. He asks in jest “If Magnier wins, will it be recorded as a related party transaction?” as KPMG audit Coolmore.
- Tom Roche’s NTR paid $125k for former US president Bill Clinton to make a speech at New York’s University Club in 2010, according to Hilary Clinton’s recently released emails.
Sunday Independent
Tom Godfrey, chief executive of IBI Corporate Finance, has said that the volume and value of Irish M&A activity is “significantly down” on last year and is likely to remain below 2015 levels. Godfrey states the slowdown is due to uncertainty around the Brexit referendum and in order for there to be more activity there needs to more certainty around Britain’s future relationship with the EU. Godfrey is also the feature of this week’s interview.
Professor Kevin O’Connor, an award-winning inventor at UCD, is raising €10m to develop an eco-friendly glue and is aiming to link up with an industry partner to gain a share of the €6bn global market for the green adhesives used in glue. The funding round is set to conclude next year and Prof O’Connor has already raised €16m to date which is to be used to build a demonstration plant. The production technology is now licensed by spin-out company Bioplastech, which he formed with Dr Ramesh Babu of Trinity College and Italian entrepreneur Enrico Altieri.
The Central Bank’s recent recruitment activities have cost taxpayers c. €2m in the last 18 months. The outlay includes c. €1.1m spent on external recruitment and a c. €800k spend on internal management costs. The Central Bank is targeting to hire an additional 300 people over the next three years to bring its total headcount to 1,829.
Niall Phelan, the founder of Rye River Brewing, has said the company is making all of its beers unpasteurised to enhance their flavours. The company has raised two-thirds of a target €11m this year and recently signed a partnership agreement with Atlanta-based craft brewery Sweetwater.
Deutsche Bank chief executive John Cryan is set to meet Finance Minister Michael Noonan this week. It is said that Cryan is looking for more office space near Deutsche’s existing offices, alternative Dublin sites or regional office space close to a university.
Developer Greg Kavanagh’s company, New Generation Homes, has been hit with a derelict site notice over its failure to progress plans for the redevelopment of La Touche Hotel in Greystones. Should New Generation Homes fail to address matters, it could be hit with a fine of 3% of the total site value.
David Cosgrove has been hit with a boardroom ban and his company, Belvedere Management Ltd, has had its management license revoked on the back of allegations his company is part of an elaborate €16bn Ponzi scheme. Belvedere was set up in 2008 as an umbrella group for more than 100 investment funds.
TV3 has closed a deal with the BBC to run a second series of Red Rock as the soap concluded its first run on the BBC. This is part of a “smart growth” strategy, according to TV3 managing director Pat Kiely. TV3 was acquired by John Malone’s Liberty Global in July 2015 in a deal worth €87m.
The new owners of Clerys have indicated the prospect of employing “some” of the former department stores employees if its plans for redevelopment are approved by the Dublin City Council. A report prepared, on behalf of Deidre Foley’s OCS Properties, by DKM Economic Consultant, says the redevelopment would create a total of 1450 jobs with 330 in its retail offering alone.
Construction group Flynn Management & Contractors has appointed two figures from rivals BAM to its senior management team. Leo Harman has joined as a director and Fergal Duffy joins as a project director. The Glasnevin-based company recently won the contract to renovate the Old Jameson Distillery and has is projecting revenue to grow from €40m last year, to €100m this year.
Samsung has recalled all Galaxy Note 7 smartphones equipped with batteries which have been found to be fire-prone and has halted sales in 10 markets. Samsung has sold 2.5m of the devices so far and investors sold shares after Thursday’s announcement, removing c. $7bn from the firm’s market value.
Peter McKenna, the GAA’s commercial director outlines the reinvestment of revenues into grass roots by the GAS, “Our sponsor partners know that around 82pc of all income that the GAA earns from things like gate receipts, sponsorship, media rights and merchandising is redistributed throughout the organisation into the counties and clubs.”
€2.95bn – The value of commercial property deals done in the first half of the year, according to @CBRE_Ireland . @IndoBusiness
11.9% – The unadjusted year-on-year decrease in the number of claimants on the live register in August, according to @centralbank_ie.
€2.3bn – The value of mortgage drawdowns in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of €200m. @IrishTimesBiz
13% – The rise in prime industrial rent so far this year to €85 per sq m. @IndoBusiness
€3bn – The value of property deals done so far this year. @IndoBusiness
1.9% – The year-on-year decline in loans to Irish households for the month of July, according to @centralbank_ie. @IrishTimesBiz
30% – The year-on-year increase in profits per hotel room across the country for 2015, according to @Crowe_IEConsult . @IrishTimesBiz
€13bn – The amount of tax to be repaid to the Irish state by Apple. @IrishTimesBiz
18% – The year-on-year growth in mortgage approvals for the month of July. @IndoBusiness
15% – The average decrease in salaries for new hires in the years 2005-2014, according to a study by the @centralbank_ie. @IrishTimesBiz
17% – Rise in the number of motor insurance claims involving uninsured or untraced drivers between January and July. @IrishTimesBiz
$4.5tn – The value of the balance sheet the Fed amassed as a result of its quantitative easing program. @IrishTimesBiz
€19bn – @jpmorgan’s initial estimate of the potential tax bill owed to the State by Apple. @IrishTimesBiz
35% – The year-on-year decrease in gas prices for the month of August, according to @VayuEnergy. @IndoBusiness