Weekend Digest

SEEN OR HEARD: They may have fallen sharply since the recent failure of a key Alzheimer's disease drug in clinical trials but shares in biotech group Elan have had one notable supporter in recent months, according to the Sunday Independent.

Tycoon George Soros, of Soros Fund Management , has built up a stake of almost 4.9 million shares in the Irish company, according to its latest quarterly update to investors.

The newspaper states that the Soros stake would be currently worth around €60 million.

* Microsoft, one of the largest and most active of the foreign direct investors in Ireland, has been moving cash out of the country in an effort to reduce its exposure to volatile euro zone economies, the Sunday Business Post reports. The company has reduced its cash balance in Ireland by 99 per cent since the third quarter of last year, the paper states.

Organised by Citi, the zero balance accounting project saw Microsoft reduce balances in 150 accounts across the peripheral euro zone states towards zero every day – an exercise that involved moving sums of up to $250 million in certain markets.

The paper noted that the project won Microsoft an award in London recently for its approach to treasury management .

* Former One51 chief Philip Lynch received payments of just over €2.5 million from the company this year, the Sunday Times reports. Citing the company’s annual report, which was published over the weekend, the paper says Lynch received compensation of €1.5 million for loss of office and a further €623.000 for deferred convertible shares held by him at the time of his departure which were bought by the company. The former company boss was paid salary and benefits of €385,000 for the first six months of 2011 ahead of his removal at the company’s AGM that year.

The Sunday Business Post reports that Lynch is to be sued by One51 over his management of the company. At the heart of that case is expected to be his “entirely disproportionate” remuneration in a period when the company disclosed in its report that it lost €110 million – a figure that includes a €105 million writedown of assets and the cost of a redundancy programme.

Lynch, who is expected to dispute the claim strongly, is separately suing the company.