Current Account

Strong contender for 'jargon of week' awardCurrent account, caring as we do for our readers, always tries to protect them from the worst of the many atrocities inflicted in the business and finance world by the use of jargon. Not everyone is so compassionate. Donal O'Mahony, who produces a regular comment on debt markets for Davy Stockbrokers, is a case in point.

In a Monday comment on Bank of England recent interest rate cuts, Donal told his readers that this cut came with the "fully-discounted blessing of the Short-Sterling strip, King &Co, thus eschewing any undesirable tightening of financial conditions". Phew! The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, which makes interest rate decisions, he says has "become an eminently predictable beast in recent years, corralling most of its recent activism into predesignated months". Quite.

Clearly enjoying himself, Donal goes on to refer to "the greater potency of incremental policy adjustments in a more leveraged economic environment". This, he says, "speaks first and foremost to the UK consumer, whose debt/income ratio remains a tad stratospheric".

In case such outpourings continue, the Current Account team is debating whether to run a "jargon of the week" award (a word other than "jargon" was initially suggested but our editor turned it down on grounds of taste and decency). Keep it coming, Donal.

Colleary swears Tribune shares worthless

Former founder and boss of the various Usit companies, Gordon Colleary, must be a relieved man this week after the High Court effectively gave him a clean bill of health in relation to the collapse of the group back in 2001.

However, reading through the judgment on the application brought by liquidator Ray Jackson to have Colleary restricted as a director, one senses Colleary was at all times pretty candid about the success or otherwise of his investments. This is certainly the case when it came to the Sunday Tribune, the newspaper chaired by Colleary. Jackson, during his review of the Usit companies, came across Sunday Tribune shares held by Usit Ltd. These shares appear to have been transferred to Colleary in January 2002. Colleary explained he actually bought the shares in 1996 and they were his. Any delay in registering the transfer was down to lost share certificates, he explained. But more than that, Colleary helpfully explained in his affidavit that the market value of the shares was "nil".

The High Court judgment does not give any information on current market value of the Sunday Tribune, but with accumulated losses of €37.2 million it's unlikely things have changed too radically.

Mexican muscles in

The arrival at Readymix of Roger Gonzalez raises the interesting prospect of a Mexican doing what they are best known for in these parts: fighting with cowboys.

While dealing with Readymix's customers, and competitors will no doubt form some part of Mr Gonzalez brief as finance director, one suspects that Cemex have put their own man in because they are less than happy with the performance of this part of their far-flung empire. The Mexican cement giant is now the controlling shareholder in Readymix by virtue of its acquisition last March of RMC which has a 63 per cent stake in the Irish group.

No doubt his bosses want to know why the company is doing so badly in an economy that is being shored up by a booming construction sector. It is a case, one suspects, of Cemex wanting "a few dollars more".

Hilton on the move

Two cheers for the Irish unit of the Hilton Hotel group, which has finally lodged its accounts for 2002 in the Companies Office. Pretax losses grew to €1.37 million in the year from €687,000, while sales fell to €9.17 million from €9.31 million. The unit had a single hotel in 2002 at Charlemont Place, Dublin. With operating profits in 2002 down to €282,155 from €914,082 in 2001, a spokesman said the pretax loss was was not trading-related. The delay in filing the results was due to "technical accounting issues", he said. Hilton is now in expansion mode. With a new airport hotel on the Malahide Road open since June, the group has also taken over the Mount Wolesley spa and country club in Carlow.