Business and Finance Christmas Quiz

The past year has been particularly conducive for business. Nevertheless, there were failures as well as successes. Test your memory by putting an X in the appropriate box and send your entry not later than January 6th

(1) Who said "we have decided that we will buy, at a premium, all shares sold by our local people"?

Charlie McCreevy Jonathan Guinness

Mahathir Mohamad

(2) The annual rate of inflation in November was

1.6 per cent

4.0 per cent

9.0 per cent

(3) What profits did the Jefferson Smurfit Group generate in the six months to June 1997?

£0.2 million

£61.2 million £410 million

(4) True False James Bond was ordered by the High Court to attend the Bula Resources (Holdings) hearing.

Central Bank of Ireland made a contribution to the PDs

Charlie Haughey sold his Kerry island for $4 million.

(5) Who said "why won't they give me my money. It's all I have"?

Jim Stanley outside a Moscow bank

Bill Gates outside the Fed

Woman outside bank in Seoul

(6) True False

Tony O'Reilly decided to Naoimi Campbell joined the Bank of Ireland board

(7) Who bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson?

Gay Byrne

Craig McKinney

DJ Chris Evans

(8) Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur is estimated to account for what percentage of exports by value

0.01

1.5

9.7

(9) Tax allowance for widowed parents in the first tax year after the year of bereavement will be increased from £1,500 to what, with effect from April 1998?

£1,000

£5,000

£15,000

(10) What retirement bonus did Don Tidey receive?

£2 million sterling

£7 million sterling

£9 million sterling

(11) Who strongly requested people "not to be guided by groundless rumours and to act sensibly"?

Bertie Ahern

Larry Goodman

Governor of Bank of Japan (12) True False

Ben Dunne was reinstalled as executor of his late sister's will.

Green Property did not raise £60 million in rights issue.

Heiton raised $25 million in junior loan notes.

(13) How much did Ardagh decide to invest in a new glass bottle plant?

£25 million £90 million

£190 million

(14) How much did IAWS pay to buy Cuisine de France?

£51 million

£100 million

£200 million

(15) What new logo for tourism did Jim McDaid unveil in September?

Sod of turf in a Guinness glass

Leprechaun pointing the way to Ireland

Newly-designed impressionistic shamrock

(16) Who said "if the profession shows itself unable to deal adequately...then it will be incumbent on Government to take whatever action is necessary in the public interest"?

Mary O'Rourke

Tom Griffin

Mary Harney

(17) What designer does Waterford Crystal use for a range of glass stemware?

Paul Costello

Lainey Keogh

John Rocha

(18) Who, in good spirits, said "it's taken a long time to get there and there's still a long way to go"?

John Teeling

Dermot Desmond

Tony Mullins

(19) True False

NTMA got contract to man age Hong Kong's portfolio of foreign bonds

KPMG and Price Waterhouse agreed to merge

Microsoft did not agree to merge with Netscape Communications Corp

(20) Who is to succeed David Kingston as managing director of Irish Life Assurance?

Jack Casey

Michael Fingleton

David Went

Quiz compiled by Bill Murdoch

* The winner will receive a case of wine, Findlater's Classic Claret. Entries, lim- ited to one per person, should be addressed to:

Christmas Quiz, Business and Finance, The Irish Times, 11-13 D'Olier Street, Dublin, 2.

Name ..............

Address

Telephone ........