Business

Galway’s Chanelle Pharma poised for €300m sale to private equity firm

Seen & Heard: Dawson Street development for sale, State spending on migrants, DAA pay rises, and craft brewery sale

Chanelle Pharma founder and managing director Michael Burke is poised to sell the company.

Sun Jan 28 2024 - 14:28

Galway-based generic drugmaker Channelle Pharma is on track to be sold to UK private equity firm Exponent in a deal said to be worth about €300 million, the Sunday Times reported.

The price tag for Channelle, which was set up almost 40 years ago by vet Michael Burke, is shy of the €400 million estimate speculated last year when he hired investment bank Rotschild to sound out potential buyers. The company has veterinary licences for as many as 3,000 animal medicines in the EU and up to 1,800 licences for human drugs, the report said.

The bidding process also attracted other private equity firms, including HIG and Duke Capital, it said. The company, which does not file accounts with the Companies Registration Office, is understood to turn a profit of about €25 million a year.

New Dawson Street development may be sold

The owners of Grafton Place and 60 Dawson Street, a new Dublin city centre office, retail and leisure complex, are exploring the possibility of a sale of the development for between €250 million and €300 million, the Sunday Times reported.

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International real estate investment firm Mark and Dublin-based BCP Asset Management have hired Eastdil and CBRE to sound out potential bidders for the building, which was completed last summer and 80 per cent leased. The partners had bought Nassau House and neighbouring buildings in 2015 to set the footprint for the scheme. Signed-up tenants include US software group ServiceNow, social media giant Pinterest and gaming company Sandbox VR.

State spends €2bn housing migrants in past two years

The Government spent nearly €2 billion on housing Ukrainians and asylum seekers in the past 30 months, which is more than its expenditure for the past two decades, the Business Post reported.

The State’s spending on direct provision between 1999 and 2020 had amounted to €1.67 billion, it said.

The paper noted that a sharp increase in the number of immigrants in need of protection has triggered a national debate on the matter. This is likely to be a key battleground heading into the next general election, which must take place by March 2025.

Dublin Airport offers 10% multiyear staff pay hike

State-owned airport operator DAA has agreed with unions to a proposed 10.3 per cent pay increase for most staff at Dublin Airport over three years, with an even bigger increase on the cards for new entrants, the Sunday Independent reported.

The newspaper said that rates for new airport search unit officers, retail sales assistants, cleaners and other customer service employees would soar 25 per cent in three instalments to March 2026 as the airport operator seeks to entice workers and avoid previous staffing issues that led to passenger delays. Under the plan, the hourly rate for new security officers would increase from €15.88 to €19.80 over the period.

The report cited union Siptu’s aviation sector organiser Niall Phillips as saying: “The company keeps telling us that once employees are there two or three years, they have a tendency to stay, but there is an attrition rate in the first year. These entry-level rates of pay are about enticing people to come and work in the company and holding on to them.”

Irish Distillers sell craft beer company back to founders

The Sunday Independent also reported that Irish Distillers, which is owned by France-based Pernod Ricard, has sold a Cork craft beer business it acquired in 2018 back to its owners for an undisclosed sum.

Irish Distillers had been trying to sell Eight Degrees Brewing, which was set up in 2010 by Scott Baigent and Cameron Wallace, for some time, the report noted. The founders had left the business a year and a half ago and subsequently learned that Irish Distillers were looking to sell it, it said. Irish Distillers will continue to distribute the brand.

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