In short

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

$450,000 payout for Limerick Chamber of Commerce leader

The president of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce, Kieran MacSweeney, received a pay-off of more than $450,000 on stepping down as managing director of a Shannon-based IT firm last year.

Documents just returned with the Companies Office confirm that Mr MacSweeney received the $460,301 (€347,660) payment when he left Avocent International Ltd in October of last year.

Mr MacSweeney – who built the Shannon unit up over 14 years – resigned at the age of 52 after Avocent International Ltd’s US parent was purchased by industrial conglomerate Emerson Electric in a $1.2 billion deal.

Mr MacSweeney was appointed president of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce earlier this year and has been one of the midwest’s most high-profile businessmen in recent years.

Avocent International sustained pretax losses of $25 million last year, according to the accounts, compared to a $10 million profit in 2008. Turnover at the IT company slumped by 21 per cent to $153 million in 2009.

Farm machinery dispute adjourned

A dispute involving claims that a hole was cut in the roof of a Co Louth factory in the dead of night and machinery removed from there to Northern Ireland, in breach of a court order, has been adjourned to next week.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly was told yesterday that there is a dispute about the identity of people who cut a hole on the night of December 3rd/4th last in the roof of the Ruscon Engineering Ltd farm machinery factory at Tullyallen, Drogheda, Co Louth, but gardaí had interviewed people present at the scene.

The judge was told businessman Graeme Robinson and his companies claim the hole was cut on behalf of a hire-purchase company, but that claim is disputed. On consent of both sides, the judge adjourned matters to next Friday.

Investors keeping an eye on McInerney

Investors hoping to pick up bargains in the distressed Irish market are watching the outcome of the McInerney examinership case carefully, according to specialist news service Debtwire. The service, a global specialist that tracks cases involving distressed assets and companies, said this week a victory for the banks, owed €113 million, would deter investors who are again interested in buying into the Republic, as they believe distressed assets here represent good value. If the examinership succeeds, it could provide a template for making companies’ debts more manageable, and thus more attractive to investors.

Icelandic minister backs Icesave deal

Iceland’s finance minister said yesterday he backed a deal with Britain and the Netherlands over debts incurred in a bailout of depositors in a failed bank. Opposition parties were more cautious, however.

Icelandic negotiators say they have a draft deal offering better terms than one rejected in March for repaying the $5 billion (€3.8 billion) the two countries spent reimbursing British and Dutch Icesave account holders.

Iceland expects a recovery of the assets of Landsbanki to repay the $5 billion of principal. – (Reuters)