In Short

A round up of today's other stories in brief...

Irish shelf firm buys business class airline

Silverjet Plc, the all-business class carrier that ceased operations 13 days ago, has agreed to be bought by Irish shelf company Kingplace Ltd.

Silverjet, which flew to New York and Dubai from Luton airport, was purchased for an undisclosed sum, administrator Begbies Traynor Group Plc said in a statement yesterday. Kingplace is registered in Ireland and managed by Heritage, a Geneva-based investment trust. Heritage is chaired by Ian Ilsley, who is a Kingplace director. Mr Ilsley could not be contacted yesterday.- (Bloomberg)

Aircraft leasing firms employ 1,000

The Irish aircraft leasing industry contributed €308 million in taxes to the State in 2007 and employs 1,000 people, each earning an average of €110,000 a year, according to a survey.

The survey, conducted by accountancy firm KPMG for the Federation of Aerospace Enterprises in Ireland, found that aviation leasing companies expected employment in the sector to grow by 45 per cent to 1,442 jobs over the next three years, assuming the State retained its 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate.

Smurfit Kappa gets upgrade

The outlook for paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa was upgraded from stable to positive by credit ratings agency Moody's yesterday, following recent upgrades of the group's debt by the agencies Standard Poor's and Fitch. However, Smurfit Kappa's share price fell 8 per cent yesterday to €5.33, down 46 cent.

RBS results to be 'satisfactory'

RBS, which owns Ulster Bank, said yesterday its first-half results would be "satisfactory" after allowing for the losses related to the turmoil in the credit markets. It said the writedowns were expected to "remain within" the bank's estimates of about £5.9 billion.

However, RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin acknowledged that conditions remained uncertain. "We are open for business, but it's not business as usual. It's clear that things are changing out there," he said. - (Financial Times service)

Oil price up $6 as US stockpiles fall

Crude oil prices jumped more than $6 yesterday after a government report showed stockpiles in the US fell sharply for the fourth week in a row due to flagging imports, intensifying worries of a worsening global crunch.

US crude oil prices rose $6.18 to $137.47 a barrel by the afternoon in Europe, within sight of last week's record near $140. -(Reuters)

Ormonde project encouraging

Ormonde Mining, the IEX-listed exploration group, said yesterday it had seen highly encouraging results from its Barruecopardo Tungsten Project in Spain.