The Irish Times - Finance

Cosmetic changes put skincare company on the growth path

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:58 GMT

FUTURE PROOFING - OvelleReasonably priced quality products that clearly state what they are ‘free from’ has proved a winning formula at home and abroad for Dundalk-based Ovelle, writesJUDITH CROSBIE

Ferrari retains allure despite scandals

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

A RED FERRARI is a powerful symbol of wealth and achievement and there are plenty of them on the streets of Asian cities these days as the newly rich get the right boy toys to go with their rising status.

Regional growth still robust

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

ECONOMIC GROWTH in East Asia and Pacific is robust, but the region needs to reduce its reliance on exports and find new sources of growth, the World Bank said in a report released last week.

Developing organic tea in China

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

“NOT FOR all the tea in China,” the old adage goes. Organic tea company Solaris Botanicals is only interested in the organic tea in China.

Chinese companies splash the cash abroad

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Ties between the US and Chinese film industries have been getting cosy since China agreed in February to open its market to more overseas films

Me and my money

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Daragh Murphy, founder of Hairy Baby T-Shirts

It may seem unsexy to some, but history shows that value matters

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

SERIOUS MONEY:The idea that the poor stock market returns over the past decade – and more – stems from so-called ‘black swan’ events does not stand up to serious scrutiny

Good Samaritan could create gift tax problem

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Q&A:I have a friend who through no fault of his own is in a stressful mortgage situation. My wife and I are thinking of clearing a chunk of his mortgage for him. It could be us if the cards if life fell differently.

Value For Money

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Cola

Service charge paid but no service given by Ticketmaster

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

YOUR CONSUMER QUERIES:MICHAEL NASH has a problem with Ticketmaster. He bought three tickets for a concert – for his brother and his two friends – and paid a service charge of €3.50 for each ticket but the tickets never arrived.

Wave goodbye for healthy savings

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Further rises in health insurance premiums are on the cards but, by shopping around, families can make considerable savings, writesCONOR POPE

If the share price offer sounds too good to be true, then it probably is

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:57 GMT

Complaints to the Central Bank about ‘boiler-room’ scams have doubled in the last month, so it is worth checking out unsolicited approaches by stockbrokers to make sure they are bona fide

So, what has the EU ever done for us?

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

Quite a lot actually. Thanks to European Commission rulings, Irish consumers have a whole raft of extra legal protections against the worst excesses of big business, writesCONOR POPE

Sacked Olympus boss to seek $60m

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

OLYMPUS FORMER CEO Michael C Woodford will seek $60 million in a lawsuit in the UK against the Japanese camera maker over his dismissal, according to a person familiar with the claim.

Billionaire investor resigns as TNK-BP chief

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

TNK-BP said billionaire investor Mikhail Fridman resigned as chief executive officer, deepening a dispute between the oil giant and Russian shareholders at Russia’s third-largest oil producer.

Diageo to pay $453m in cash for Ypioca brand

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

DIAGEO, THE maker of Guinness, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, will pay 900 million reais ($453 million) in cash for Brazilian cachaca brand Ypioca as it expands in faster-growing emerging markets.

Small gains in European trading

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

It was Memorial Day in the US yesterday, the federal holiday associated with remembering the men and women who had died while serving in the American armed forces.

Online Irish retailer to create 40 new jobs in Blanchardstown in the next year

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

A new online Irish retailer plans to create some 40 new jobs at its Dublin base, it was announced yesterday.

Chief executives have more hope for company than country

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

A survey of chief executives from Irish business shows that while 44 per cent are confident about the prospects for their own business, only 22 per cent have a favourable outlook for Ireland’s economy in the year ahead.

Pre-tax losses as food group narrow sharply to €2.2m

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

Pre-tax losses narrowed sharply at Cork-based property and food group, Reox Holdings last year to €2.2 million.

Retail sales continue to fall

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:56 GMT

Retail sales declined by all main measures in April, reflecting a continued downward trend in consumer activity that has been in evidence since the middle of 2010.

Turnover at First Derivatives grows by a quarter

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

First Derivatives, the specialist financial software and consulting services company, has grown its annual turnover by more than 25 per cent to a record £46.1 million (€57.6 million).

Cantillon

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

Inside the world of business

Tax rate change would come at a price

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

FORGET THE fiscal treaty debate because a new challenge to Ireland’s low rate of corporation tax might just be about to materialise on its doorstep.

When budget concerns give way to financial backers

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

Will Chris Christie’s budget temper tantrum end speculation that he might become Mitt Romney’s running mate?

Origin Enterprises reports 22% increase in revenues

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

AGRI-SERVICES group Origin Enterprises has reported a 22 per cent increase in revenues for its third quarter.

Irish firm on cue to create up to 50 jobs

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

AN IRISH software company that designed the autocue system used by US president Barack Obama during live television speeches has unveiled expansion plans that will result in the creation of nearly 50 high-grade technology jobs.

Quinn division freed of €794m debt burden

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:55 GMT

A SUBSIDIARY of the restructured Quinn Group has been “permanently relieved” of €794 million of debt owed to related parties according to the first set of financial results for Quinn Manufacturing Group Holdco Ltd.

Central Bank demanded answers

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:54 GMT

The Central Bank has been getting tough on how stockbroking report financial transactions since 2010, writesSIMON CARSWELL, Finance Correspondent

Amazon to employ another 100 at Kilmainham centre

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:54 GMT

ONLINE RETAILER and cloud computing giant Amazon is to add 100 software and engineering jobs to its development centre in Dublin, with most of the positions to be filled before the start of its busy Christmas trading period.

Four biggest banks in Greece given €18bn

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:54 GMT

GREECE HANDED €18 billion to its four biggest banks yesterday, allowing the stricken lenders to regain access to European Central Bank funding.

NIB main beneficiary of Bloxham sale to Davy

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:53 GMT

NATIONAL IRISH Bank is likely to be one of the main beneficiaries of the €6 million acquisition of Bloxham’s private client and asset management businesses by rival stockbroker Davy.

Intel seeks planning for extensive new plant

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:57:53 GMT

MULTINATIONAL microchip manufacturer Intel is seeking planning permission from Kildare County Council for a 162,000sq m new plant at Leixlip, confirming it as one of the sites it has chosen to produce its next generation of microprocessors.

For your diary

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

MONDAY: US Memorial Day.

McCarthy speech is talk of the town

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

THE FISCAL treaty referendum will be over by Friday – but the postmortems will only have begun.

Rising expectations for First Derivatives

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

NEWRY-BASED specialist financial software company First Derivatives is very much a good news story, but one that sometimes flies under the radar.

Feta accompli: lay off the cheese jokes

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

THE TAOISEACH and his Ministers will continue to canvass across the State in the days ahead as Thursday’s fiscal treaty referendum looms closer.

Seen or heard

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

* A NEW report on controversies surrounding the Dublin Docklands Development Authority will be presented to Cabinet this week and published thereafter, reports the Sunday Business Post.

Being a bore, it seems, is awfully good for business

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:21 GMT

A FEW days ago Jeff Immelt sent out a message to all 300,000 General Electric employees offering some tips for their summer reading. “I read between 50 and 70 books a year . . . split between history, novels and business,” the GE chief wrote. He went on to discuss a couple of titles before ending with a request: “Let me know what you are reading so that I can get smarter.”

Stocktake

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

Compiled byPRONSIAS O'MAHONY

UN torture committee update

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

Felice Gaer, Director of the New York-based Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and Vice-Chair of the UN Committee against Torture, will speak at a meeting organised by the ICCL and the Justice for Magdalenes group today from 2pm-4pm. The meeting takes place in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8, and will discuss the impact of the UN committee against torture’s questioning of Ireland’s record on the Magdalenes and other issues a year ago.

Prison Law seminar

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

The Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) will co-host a prison law seminar, “Using the European Convention on Human Rights in prison law cases: Lessons from Scotland”, today (6pm-7.30pm) in DIT Aungier Street (Room 5034), Dublin 2.

Whistle-blowing breakfast briefing

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

Joanne Hyde and Gareth Wadley of Eversheds Ireland and the UK respectively will discuss the UK legislation on whistle-blowing and the proposed Irish legislation at a breakfast briefing tomorrow from 7.30am-9.15am at Eversheds, Earlsfort Terrace, D2.

New Corporate Law professor

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

A new academic post, the McCann FitzGerald Chair of Corporate Law, has just been established in the law school of Trinity College, and Prof Blanaid Clarke has been appointed as the inaugural chair. She joins Trinity from the School of Law at UCD, where she had been since 1991, most recently as associate professor in law.

Claim against bank amended to include alleged fraud

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

High court judgment/Cuttle -v- ACC Bank PLC

Greek lawyers under siege

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:20 GMT

THE GREEK legal profession is being hit by a tidal wave of enforced change in an extremely short period of time. The mood among the leaders of the profession is a mixture of anger, bewilderment and something close to despair. The profession has been on strike, on and off, for months.

Minister's employment dispute proposals are workable

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

WHEN THE Minister for Jobs, Enterprise Innovation, Richard Bruton, published proposals for a reshaped workplace-relations structure, they were welcomed by all as providing the basis for a more efficient user-friendly system.

A woman of many firsts among equals

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

INTERVIEW:Moya Quinlan reckons that when she was a student, there were maybe 10 practising female solicitors in Ireland. Both the profession and Quinlan herself have come a long way since then, writesFIONA GARTLAND

World's first wire-free sleep monitor hits the market

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

THE WORLD’S FIRST wire-free sleep monitoring device which was initially developed in UCD has gone on sale.

New employer safety in the cloud

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

WITH EMPLOYEES increasingly using cloud computing services at work, often without official sanction, the problem of digital blind spots is growing for employers and posing new risks for their IT and legal departments according to Irish digital evidence company, Cernam.

TCD research makes big brain breakthrough

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

SWELLING IN THE brain is not good news, and can be difficult to treat. But new research from Trinity College Dublin has demonstrated a way to help relieve the pressure that could pave the way to better treatments.

Firms scramble for talent at non-executive director level

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:19 GMT

INNOVATION PROFILE/Talentism – the vital new ammunition for business success:AT THIS YEAR’S World Economic Forum in Davos the event’s founder, Charles Schwab, spoke of a new dynamic in the global economy, saying that the fundamental engine for growth in the future would no longer be capitalism as it is understood at present but a new concept he dubbed “talentism”.

Making a splash in milk research

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

State agencies, business and academia have joined forces to research milk and, once its useful ingredients have been isolated, the hope is that these could be added to foods to support your health, writesCLAIRE O'CONNELL

New innovator

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

eCAT Electronic monitoring system

Lighting up energy harvesting

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

Producing products that harvest the energy from light indoors and outside has given SolarPrint an edge, writesOLIVE KEOGH

Mobile technology accelerates disruption theory

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

INNOVATION TALK:FOR THE PAST 15 years, it has been nearly impossible to think about innovation without also thinking about disruption. In business management theory, they are two sides of the same coin, with every innovation creating both opportunity and risk; opportunity for the innovator, risk for the incumbent.

Booked

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

Business thinking between the covers, compiled byFRANK DILLON

Giving blue-sky thinking a safe place to land

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

Although academia and business sit at opposite ends of the professional spectrum, in TCD’s CRANN, they are joining forces through many shared goals, not least the commercial potential of the many projects in development, writesJOHN HOLDEN

Bond yields plummet as investors hold out for interest rate cut

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:18 GMT

China:Yields on China’s riskiest bonds have fallen to their lowest level in more than a year as investors bet the government will cut interest rates to counter slowing economic growth.

Still time to apply for 'Irish Times' Digital Challenge

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:17 GMT

Opportunities for start-ups:The deadline for The Irish Times Digital Challenge is approaching.

Pembroke agrees sale and leaseback deal with FlyDubai

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:17 GMT

Aircraft leasing:Ireland-based aircraft leasing and financing business Pembroke Group, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, has agreed a $172 million (€137 million) sale and leaseback deal with FlyDubai, the low-cost carrier owned by the Dubai government.

Group welcomes jail sentences handed down to tax evaders

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:17 GMT

Accounting Technicians Ireland:Accounting Technicians Ireland has welcomed the jail sentences handed down by the courts in recent months for cases of tax evasion.

Economic rise of the east should be mostly for the better - for everyone

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:17 GMT

ANALYSIS:If our future links with all Asia are as limited as those with Japan, things do not augur well for Ireland, writesDAN O'BRIEN

MSD invests €7m in Carlow

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:16 GMT

PHARMACEUTICAL multinational MSD is to make a €7 million investment in its facility in Carlow, creating 20 contract positions and broadening activities at the site, it said yesterday.

KFC Ireland franchise firm posts €2m loss

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:16 GMT

THE COMPANY that operates the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise across Ireland fell further into the red in 2010 to record pre-tax losses of €2 million, new figures show.

Bestseller narrows losses but turnover falls

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:15 GMT

BESTSELLER RETAIL, the Danish company behind fashion chains Vero Moda and Jack Jones, narrowed its losses in Ireland to about €350,000 in the year to the end of July 2011, but turnover fell 35 per cent as the group reduced its Irish presence.

Spain's Bankia to seek €19bn in state funds

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:15 GMT

NATIONALISED SPANISH lender Bankia will seek €19 billion in state funds to cover writedowns on residential mortgages and lending to companies, taking the cost of rescuing Spain’s fourth biggest lender to €23.5 billion.

Minister ends carbon charge for energy companies

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:15 GMT

THE GOVERNMENT has repealed the multimillion euro carbon levy on fossil fuel-based energy generation, which had allowed energy companies to increase wholesale electricity prices.

Focusing on paper profits at Nama would be a sideshow

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:15 GMT

BUSINESS OPINION:What you can’t do is avoid the losses incurred by the banks through reckless lending prior to 2008 and the debts they ran up, writesJOHN McMANUS

Lagarde says Greek elite must pay fair share of tax

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:14 GMT

CHRISTINE LAGARDE, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has used her Facebook page to insist she is “very sympathetic to the Greek people”, while reiterating that its elite must pay their fair share of taxes.

IDG paid €74.6m dividend to Pernod Ricard

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:47:13 GMT

WHISKEY MAKER Irish Distillers Group (IDG), whose brands include Jameson, Paddy and Powers, paid a dividend of €74.6 million last year to its French parent company, Pernod Ricard.

Stocks gain on pledge to boost growth

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:21:58 GMT

EUROPEAN STOCKS posted their first weekly advance in a month as China pledged to bolster growth and a three-week selloff left the Stoxx Europe 600 index at its cheapest level since January.

Australian deal opens way for foreign workers

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:21:58 GMT

AUSTRALIA WILL open its booming natural resources sector to short-term foreign workers for the first time under a new scheme aimed at easing a chronic labour shortage that has sent wages and companies’ costs soaring.

Glaxo strategy to buy collaborator firms

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:21:58 GMT

GLAXOSMITHKLINE may find its next acquisition target where the UK drug-maker found the last two: among more than a dozen companies it collaborates with to develop new treatments.

Thai firm gets £950m for Cove bid

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:21:58 GMT

THAILAND’S PTT Exploration Production (PTTEP) has obtained £950 million financing to back its proposed acquisition of Africa-focused explorer Cove Energy.