Seen & Heard: Eircom benefits

Eircom's senior management shared €39.1 million in pay, bonuses and benefits last year as the company lines itself up for a possible initial public offering, according to reports in both the Sunday Times and the Sunday Independent.

The telco, which has filed a pre-flotation prospectus with the Central Bank of Ireland, took a €29 million exceptional charge to cover payments under a management-incentive plan introduced last year. The equivalent figure figure for the year to the end of June 2013 was €6 million.

€1bn price tag

Dundrum Town Centre could be put up for sale with a price tag of up to €1 billion, according to the

Sunday Independent

. It said bids would be expected from Asian sovereign wealth funds.

The report suggested that the National Asset Management Agency would initiate the sale of the town centre next month, having gained control of the loans associated with the retail development earlier this year.

With income of €50 million a year, the new owners could expect a yield of about 5 per cent, the report added. The centre has an annual footfall of 19 million and was developed by Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land.

Bids for Cherrywood

Irish property developer

Johnny Ronan

is on a shortlist to buy Project Cherry, a portfolio of 400 acres, including office blocks and land for development, at Cherrywood, south Co Dublin, according to the

Sunday Business Post

.

Ronan, who previously co- owned Treasury Holdings, is reported to be behind one of five bids to have made the final round for the lands, which are expected to fetch more than €220 million.

US investment giant Pimco is part of a consortium that has also made the shortlist, it reports.

Bord Gáis bonuses

Bonuses of up to €75,000 a head were paid to at least 50 high-ranking staff at Bord Gáis as part of the deal that saw its energy division sold to a British consortium, according to the

Sunday Business Post

.

It said the semi-State company, now rebranded as Ervia, made the "transactional" bonus payment after Bord Gáis Energy was sold to Centrica for €1.1 billion as part of the Government's sale of state assets.

The sums paid ranged from €10,000 to €75,000 with bonuses amounting to half of some employees’ salaries, the paper said.