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  • Indigo offers free Net service package

    INDIGO, the Internet service provider (ISP) owned by Telecom Eireann, will offer a free Internet service package from today, becoming the first of the State's established ISPs to follow telecoms company Ocean and computer manufacturer Gateway into the uncertain waters of the free Net access market. p

  • Labour costs rise lowers Dow 1.65%

    An unexpectedly large rise in US labour costs in the second quarter of the year was the main factor in a sharp fall in share prices on Wall Street yesterday. At one stage, the Dow Jones Industrial Average as down 258 points, over 2.5 per cent, before a modest recovery brought the Dow to a close of 10790.97, down 181.10, or 1.65 per cent on the day. p

  • Jury Doyle directors receive €1.16m

    The five executive directors of the Jurys Doyle Group received total remuneration of £921,000 (€1,169,430) last year, an average of almost £185,000 each. The five are all directors of the former Jurys Hotel Group before it acquired Doyle Hotels and was renamed Jurys Doyle Group. No Doyle executives are executive directors in the merged group. p

  • Bord na Mona eyes 20% stake in plant

    Bord na Mona is negotiating to take a 20 per cent stake in the new £100 million (€127 million) state-of-the-art electricity generating plant which Finnish consortium Fortum (formerly IVO) is building at Edenderry Co Offaly. It expects to conclude a deal within 12 months but declined to disclose how much it will pay. p

  • Business On Television

    The life of the late James Goldsmith provides the focus for the third film in the award-winning documentary series, The Mayfair Set (Sunday, 8 p.m., BBC 2). p

  • People on the move

    At the announcement of the DCI appointments were, from left, Mr Richard Burrows, DCI board member, Mr Michael Boyd, managing director, and Mr Trevor Bowen, chairman. p

  • Dow dives on news of a hike in US wage costs

    Stocks were sent reeling yesterday as news that US wage costs jumped at the fastest pace since 1991 fuelled fears that the inflation-fighting Federal Reserve may be ready to pull the interest-rate trigger again. p

  • In His Own Words

    Leadership: A good rugby captain is not necessarily going to make a good business leader. People want a leader to communicate with them and who will value their opinions. p
RETAIL

  • Aer Rianta hopes to buy Greek shops

    Aer Rianta is understood to be on a shortlist of two or three consortiums to buy a string of Greek duty-free shops. The deal, which would involve Aer Rianta investing in the region of £20 million (€25.4 million) in the Hellenic Duty Free group, could be concluded in September. p
COMPUTERSBack to Top

  • Compaq cuts plan puts 2,200 Irish jobs at risk

    The future of some 2,200 jobs at Compaq Computer Ireland is in question, following a decision by the US parent to make 6,000 to 8,000 redundant worldwide, out of its 69,000 workforce, in a cost-cutting exercise. Some 800 to 1,000 of the redundancies will be in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. p
NTMA REPORTBack to TopPUBLIC ACCOUNTSBack to Top

  • Former ministers unlikely to face committee

    The Dail Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) DIRT inquiry does not intend at present to call former ministers for finance to question them on what they did and did not do in relation to bogus non-resident bank accounts. p

  • Institutions are cautious before Dail committee

    The State's financial institutions appeared to adopt a cautious approach to the DIRT controversy yesterday, with many instructing their lawyers to refrain for the moment from making a public submission to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The PAC has meanwhile outlined the approach it will take in examining the evidence of widespread tax evasion through bogus non-resident accounts. p
REPORTBack to Top

  • E-commerce plan outlined by Forfas

    The first comprehensive report to map a Government strategy for promoting the growth of e-commerce in the Republic was released yesterday by the umbrella group for industrial policy development, Forfas. p
INTERNATIONALBack to Top

  • London exchange to unveil demutualisation plans

    The London Stock Exchange will today unveil plans to scrap its mutual status and turn itself into a shareholder-owned company in response to the technological revolution sweeping through the world's equity markets. p

  • Woolwich to start Countrywide joint venture in August

    Woolwich, the former building society, will start up its joint venture next month with Countrywide, the US home loans group, which could severely cut the costs of processing mortgages in Britain. Other US mortgage specialists, including HomeSide and GMAC, are also eyeing the British market. Their arrival could lead to cheaper loans for consumers, and possibly to the introduction of new US-style products such as 25-year fixed rate mortgages. p
HOMEBack to Top

  • Approval for de-merger of Crean print division to OakHill

    Industrial holding group James Crean has said that the High Court has approved the de-merger of its print and packaging division to OakHill Group. p

  • Public sector earnings in 1998 up 5.2% from 1997 - CSO

    Average weekly earnings in the public sector were up 5.2 per cent in December 1998 when compared with the same period in 1997, according to the latest figures supplied by the Central Statistics Office. A breakdown of the overall public sector figure shows average weekly earnings in regional bodies increased by 7.9 per cent between December 1997 and December 1998, or from £336.68 (€427.50) to £363.40 (€461.42). Weekly earnings in the Defence Forces increased by 6.9 per cent (£342.10 to £365.56); and weekly earnings in the Garda Siochana (including overtime) rose by 5.9 per cent (from £551.49 to £584.11) during the same period. p

  • PA Consulting to advise on electricity deregulation

    The Commission for Electricity Regulation in Ireland has appointed PA Consulting to lead a consortium to advise on deregulating the Republic's electricity market. p
CURRENCYBack to TopAIRLINESBack to Top

  • Aer Lingus confident of global tieup

    Aer Lingus has insisted its plan to join the Oneworld group remains on track, despite reports that the US government may block the American Airways (AA) and British Airways (BA) element of the global alliance of airlines. p
ELECTRICITYBack to Top

  • Bord na Mona eyes stake in plant

    Bord na Mona is negotiating to take a 20 per cent stake in the new £100 million (€127 million) state-of-the-art electricity generating plant which Finnish consortium Fortum (formerly IVO) is building at Edenderry, Co Offaly. It expects to conclude a deal within 12 months but declined to disclose how much it will pay. p
THE FRIDAY INTERVIEW - NOEL HANLONBack to Top
    CHAIRMAN OF AER RIANTABack to Top
      RESULTSBack to Top

      • €1.32m pre-tax profit for Howard

        London-based property company Howard Holdings has announced a pre-tax profit of £882,000 sterling (€1.32 million) and said it is continuing to prepare for a dual listing on the Irish Stock Exchange. p
      PACKAGINGBack to Top

      • Smurfit Stone's $725m timberlands sale boosts share price

        Smurfit Stone, the American packaging group in which Jefferson Smurfit has a 33 per cent stake, has brought its asset disposals since last year's merger to $1.5 billion (€1.4 billion) with the sale of its timber lands in the United States to American paper group Rayonier for $725 million (€678 million). p
      BUILDINGBack to Top

      • Abbey plans further growth

        Abbey, the house-building group, is looking for further growth following the rise in pre-tax profit from £19.3 million (€24.5 million) to £20.9 million (€26.6 million) in the year ended April 30th 1999. p
      ECONOMICSBack to Top

      • Pressing economics issues adjourn silly season

        Traditionally, July and August are known as the silly season. There is usually little real news, and so even minor items receive disproportionately large coverage. The courts close down, politicians take their annual holidays en masse, particularly in August, and the atmosphere is quiet. p
      CURRENT ACCOUNT - AN INSIDE TRACK ON BUSINESSBack to Top

      • UK endowments in siege

        The market for endowment mortgages virtually died in Ireland a few years ago but seems to still be alive and well in Britain where they still account for 30 per cent of new mortgages. p

      • Dunloe link yet to yield

        Dunloe Ewart's link-up with MEPC and John Laing to build a £400 million (€508 million) retail, residential and leisure development in downtown Belfast has the capacity to generate serious profits for the Irish group. But so far, those potential profits have yet to be reflected in the Dunloe share price which has been stuck around 38-40 cents for some time. p

      • Dairygold shareholders provide some refreshment in price wars

        God knows, Current Account has been critical many times in the past of farmers and their incessant demands for high milk prices. For that reason, it came as a refreshing surprise to see Dairygold's shareholders reject the demands of a well-organised ginger group to reverse the 6p a gallon cut in the milk price and also freeze capital investment at the co-op, presumably to free up cash to pay the higher milk price. p

      • Tough times for Irish Life and Permanent

        Irish Life & Permanent caused a bit of a surprise this week when it formally ruled itself out of the bidding for ICC Bank. This is something of a volte-face for IL&P given its previously expressed interest in bidding for ICC as a way to becoming a more broad-based banking group. p

      • Stentor doing a lot of talking

        What's going on at Stentor, the telecoms tiddler that has had a chequered history in its very short life as a public company. p
      OBSERVERBack to Top

      • Fighting battles of last election

        Two years and seven weeks after it ended, Des Geraghty and SIPTU are still fighting the last general election. Widen the bands, don't cut the rates, was the platform of the out-going Rainbow coalition, backed by the labour movement. The Rainbow lost. A new government was formed by the two parties which had made a joint statement on taxation in the course of the election. If a democratic mandate means anything, it means there is a mandate for the tax policies put forward by the Government. This means cutting the top rate of tax to 42 per cent "and possibly 40 per cent" within its lifetime, as well as reform of the bands. The tax credits system addresses the latter; the former is still mandated by the electorate. p
      THE MARGINBack to Top

      • Heinz reports `a world awash with ketchup'

        The Heinz annual report is not the typical tome that one gets on this side of the Atlantic, full of boring profit and loss accounts and not an awful lot else to inform the shareholders. The Heinz document comes complete with a colour picture - on page three - of chairman Tony O'Reilly to illustrate an "essay" on "New growth in a changing world". p

      • Digifone's European flavour in west Cork

        Such are the numbers of foreign nationals living in west Cork that visitors could be forgiven for confusing it with parts of England or the European mainland: especially if their chosen means of communication is the Esat Digifone network. p

      • NIB's media man faces an interesting year

        The Margin is not suggesting anything in particular should be read into the fact but found it interesting nevertheless that National Irish Bank, the financial institution which won last year's annus horibilis award, has been making direct contact with the media in recent weeks. Murray Consultants, one of the largest of the Republic's public relations companies, had been the conduit for all contact up to very recently but the bank has now appointed its own man, Nick Garbutt, a former journalist. With the Tanaiste, Ms Harney's two High Court-appointed inspectors still beavering away on their reports on interest- and fee-loading, and the sale of unauthorised offshore insurance bonds, Mr Garbutt should be in for an interesting year. p
      HEALTH MATTERS - WELFARE IN THE WORKPLACEBack to Top

      • Scheme aims to aid partnership

        The recently launched Working in Partnership training programme is "the first concrete product on partnership" to teach individual enterprises how to make partnership happen at workplace level, according to the National Centre for Partnership (NCP). p
      A VIEW FROM THE THIRD FLOOR OF THE IFSCBack to Top

      • Chimps may shed light on euro-dollar link

        Once again the newspapers have reported on the improving communication skills of chimpanzees. Apparently two chimps, Panbanisha and her son Nyota, can now communicate with people using picture icons to say things like "I want a cup of coffee". p
      MARKET REPORT - LONDONBack to Top

      • Rate worries, corporate news drag Footsie down

        A wave of anxiety swept through the London market as US economic data again reawakened interest rate fears and sentiment was hit by disappointing corporate news. The US employment cost index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1 per cent in the second quarter against analysts' expectations of a 0.8 per cent advance. The figures again raised the prospect of an increase in US interest rates. The FTSE 100 index tumbled following the release of the stronger-than-expected US data. However, yesterday's decline only exacerbated an already established trend after poor corporate news from two of the market's biggest constituents. Heavyweight pharmaceutical Glaxo Wellcome stunned the market by warning it would not meet its target of double-digit sales and earnings growth this year and the shares tumbled. p
      MARKET REPORT - DUBLINBack to Top

      • Timberlands sale takes Smurfit shares higher

        Heavy losses in London after poorly received results from Glaxo Wellcome and British Telecom, and a weak opening session in anticipation of a hike in interest rates, failed to drive the Irish market lower by anything more than a few points, although any sustained weakness in the City and Wall Street will undoubtedly hit demand for Irish shares. p
      MARKET REPORT - EUROPEBack to Top

      • Wall St keeps stock markets on edge

        Stock markets tumbled in the afternoon as Wall Street moved sharply lower on renewed fears about inflationary pressures in the US economy. p
      DATA STORAGEBack to Top

      • IBM optimistic over new server

        International Business Machines is taking on EMC in the data storage market with its new enterprise storage server, Shark. p
      WIRED ON FRIDAY - FROM LAS VEGASBack to Top

      • Keep safe don't accept e-mail sweeties from strangers

        Electronic music blares out of the four corners of the conference hall, a laser light show is in progress, massive video screens flash images at the crowd. Then the show begins - no its not the Eurovision - its the launch of a new hacker software at the Def Con hackers conference in Las Vegas this month. p
      PROFILEBack to Top

      • Capellas faces more than a few hurdles as he gets to grips with Compaq role

        Michael Capellas, the newly-appointed chief executive of Compaq Computer, which employs more than 2,000 people in Ireland, faces many challenges as he attempts to return the company to profitable growth. First, however, he must persuade shareholders and customers that he was not the candidate of last resort. p
      INTERNETBack to Top

      • CyBerCorp uses military tactics to trade online

        The systems that allow military fighter jets to track the position of enemy planes were the inspiration for CyBerCorp, a US company which provides high-speed share tracking and trading. p
      SOFTWAREBack to Top

      • Action urged to curb wage inflation

        The skills shortage "choking growth" in the Irish software industry can be solved by modifying tax laws on employee share option schemes, according to a position paper issued by the Irish Software Association (ISA) yesterday. p
      GIZMOBack to Top

      • The Swatch Beat

        Everyone knows you are a hip, ahead-of-the-curve type of person - why, it's obvious from the way you set hair, clothes general style trends! But what is that on your wrist? Isn't that a watch, using exactly the same method of measuring time as boring people? Is it not true that the dreary old 24 hours in each day system is even used by fossils such as your parents? How uncool! p
      NET RESULTS - THE WEB AND YOUR BUSINESSBack to TopDIGITAL PAYMENTBack to Top

      • It's now beam me a loan, Scotty

        With a flourish, the waiter in the chic little bistro presents the bill for the pricey lunch you've just had with your lawyer. At the same time, you begin the ruse of apologetically searching your pockets for the wallet you've deliberately left back in the office so that she'll offer to pick up the tab. p
      TECH SHORTSBack to Top

      • CanWest Global takes a stake in two US Net firms

        Canadian company, CanWest Global Communications, a substantial shareholder in Ulster Television and TV3, said this week it would take a 20 per cent stake in each of two US-based Internet companies in a deal worth a total of C$22 million (€13.6 million). p

      • NY court ruling increases risks for Net businesses

        Internet businesses face increasing risks of being sued in any jurisdiction in which their sites can be accessed following a decision this week by the New York State Supreme Court. p

      • Lotus software to provide high-speed translations

        New software being developed at Lotus development could see e-mails, documents and Web pages being translated into 15 different languages quicker than any human translator. p

      • Nasdaq to team up with top high-tech firms

        Nasdaq, the second-largest US equities market, is considering a series of joint ventures with some of the leading high-technology companies that trade on the exchange, in a plan that would culminate in a new Internet platform for trading its shares. p

      • Legal eagles spread their wings as far as the Net

        FB Keating & Company, a firm of solicitors with offices in Limerick and Shannon, has become one of the first law firms in Ireland to venture Online. The site which can be found at www.fbk.ie and was developed by Cork-based Web Store Ltd was launched on Monday. p
      AN INVESTOR'S DIGESTBack to Top

      • Tourism-related stocks worth a visit

        With all the talk about telecoms and the fuss about financials, investors may be inclined to forget another sector of the economy that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. p

      • Merrill Lynch report examines Y2K risks

        Although reams have been written on Y2K or the Millennium Bug, little of it has focused on the risks posed to investors. However, a recent report on the issue by Merrill Lynch looks at just this issue. It finds that the risks surrounding Y2K have clearly diminished over the last 12 months and that a Y2K-related global recession is now highly unlikely. p

      • City Index spread betting on offer

        Those who like a flutter will be interested to hear of the arrival on these shores of City Index, a British firm offering spread betting facilities on both sporting events and financial markets. p
      THE COLLECTORBack to TopENTERTAINMENTBack to TopMARKETSBack to TopBRIEFLYBack to Top

      • Two new forestry funds promise high return

        Forestry, like property, is a highly popular investment vehicle in the Republic. Two new forestry funds have been launched to appeal to the hearts and wallets of the treeloving State. The tax-free, low-risk nature of the investment also makes it attractive. p

      • Second Ark Life index bond tracks Euro Stoxx 50

        Following the success of last month's first AIB index bond, Ark Life has opened a second index bond. The single premium, 18-month bond tracks the Euro Stoxx 50 index, which monitors the share performance of 50 companies in the euro zone. Some of the companies included in the index are Fiat, Siemens, Philips and France Telecom. p

      • Pension fund assets top £30 billion - survey

        For the first time, total Irish pension fund assets topped £30 billion (€38.1 billion) at the end of 1998, according to the Annual Investment Survey published by the Irish Association of Pension Funds. The value of assets increased by almost 17 per cent to £30.8 billion from £26.4 billion in 1997. Irish pension holders may be keen to know the weighting of their pension fund following these results. Irish property leads the performance in the funds, returning 39.2 per cent. This was followed by European equities (ex-UK) at 27.2 per cent, Irish equities at 25.5 per cent and North American equities at 24 per cent. British equities showed a return of 12.3 per cent. Asian returns were down, reflecting the crisis last year, with Japanese equities showing just a 1.8 per cent return and Pacific equities were minus 9.5 per cent. p

      • Suggestions welcome

        Family Money welcomes suggestions of personal finance-related topics readers would like to see highlighted. Please write to Family Money, c/o The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2. p
      COSTSBack to Top

      • State aid for many may be too little too late

        Many parents struggling to pay their childcare bills for the last few years may say the Government's efforts are too little too late. The cost of having and caring for a child is increasing so quickly that reports published even a few months ago are woefully out of date. p
      CHILDCAREBack to Top

      • Babies may be cute but the growing costs of caring for them are not

        The baby boom has placed enormous pressure on the childcare sector despite some initial steps aimed at easing the problem which the Government has taken. Stringent childcare regulations, understaffing and underfunding have also worsened the situation. To date, the Government has spent £11 million (€14 million) on childcare-related programmes, with most of the funds targeting areas of disadvantage. This leaves a legion of middle-class, two-income parents juggling childcare arrangements, expenses and work commitments each day. p
      SHARESBack to Top

      • Canada Life shareholders likely to get up to £2,583

        Free shares mania has broken again as Canada Life prepares for demutualisation. Some 54,000 people in the Republic qualify for shares with the average allocation expected to be between £1,746 and £2,583. p
      SOCIAL SECURITYBack to Top

      • Benefits are available in states covered by bilateral agreements

        Irish nationals who have spent time working abroad may qualify for some social security and pension entitlements here and in the state in which they worked. If social security contributions were paid in the Republic and their former or present state of residence, they may qualify for certain benefits and pensions. These benefits are available in states with which the Republic has bilateral pension agreements - Switzerland, Austria, the United States, Canada, Quebec, Australia and New Zealand. p
      INVESTORBack to Top

      • Euro gains good news for State

        Currency markets were always likely to spring some surprises during 1999 given the introduction of the euro, which effectively transformed the world's currency market into a three horse race between the dollar, yen and euro. Currencies such as sterling and the swiss franc continue as strong independent currencies, but their roles are secondary compared with the big three. p
      THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR - PHILIP MATTHEWSBack to Top
        COMMERCIAL DIRECTORBack to Top
          PENNA HR CONSULTINGBack to Top
            TEXTILESBack to Top
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