Seen & Heard

The Sunday Independent reported that Bain Capital, an asset management group co-founded by former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is considering buying the debts of a number of Irish companies with loans at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which is being liquidated.

It said the Racing Post, TV3 and Field’s jewellers are among those being considered by Bain affiliate Sankaty Advisors.

The Revenue Commissioners has uncovered 350 offshore structures held by Irish citizens as part of its investigation into untaxed money held abroad, the Sunday Business Post reported.

Figures show that the Revenue’s work on offshore trusts has reaped €45.5 million from 328 individuals, the paper said.

The Post and the Sunday Times both reported on the ongoing dispute between music promoter John Reynolds and Denis Desmond relating to certain financial transactions entered into by the company behind the Electric Picnic festival.

The Sunday Times said AIB and Bank of Ireland are on a collision course with the credit unions by insisting that some customers in mortgage arrears cease all payments on unsecured debt.

The banks are currently participating in talks on how secured and unsecured lending is treated. These are being brokered by the Central Bank and are due to conclude by the end of the month, the paper said.

Philip Clarke, the chief executive of retail giant Tesco, will reveal new plans to revamp the supermarket chain as he fights back from its first fall in profits for two decades, according to the Sunday Telegraph .

Mr Clarke is expected to confirm that Tesco is quitting its loss-making Fresh & Easy business in the US, a project that was launched by his predecessor Sir Terry Leahy. Tesco is also expected to refocus its UK investment from building supermarkets to turning its existing stores into family destinations with coffee shops and building an online business to compete with Amazon.

The Telegraph also reported that a TV price war is likely to break out this summer after talks between BSkyB and British Telecom on sharing English Premier League live football rights broke down. This means subscribers will have to pay for a BT sport package on top of their Sky Sports subscription.