Frank Clarke mediates, Irish founded Spac faces deadline , Government energy plans criticised

Former Chief Justice Frank Clarke was brought in to mediate settlements in several legal cases between Mediahuis Ireland, the newspaper publisher previously known as Independent News & Media (INM), and members of the INM 19 who sued it over an illegal data breach. Mark Paul has the story.

So-called blank cheque companies were one of the trends of the pandemic, as firms hoovered up cash from investors to take another firm public. While the sector is now out of favour an Irish-led firm is in talks to do a deal with a company just as a deadline to liquidate it nears. Joe Brennan reports.

The Irish Academy of Engineering has assailed the Government’s energy security plans as “entirely unrealistic.” Barry O’Halloran has the details.

Martin Shanahan has stepped down from his role as CEO of IDA Ireland to join Grant Thornton’s Irish unit.

O’Connell Street landmark with full planning for boutique hotel seeks €9m

---

As more of us live longer, we need to change not only how we age, but how we think about age.

---

The Barack Obama plaza outside Moneygall has become arguably the most famous motorway service station in the country. Now, as Gordon Deegan reports, Supermacs have got the go ahead for a similar unit outside Ennis.

Gordon also reports on Genzyme Ireland’s latest accounts, with profits at the company on the up.

The Griffin Hotel Group, which counts the likes of the Monart Spa among its properties, returned to profit last year as the pandemic ebbed. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the accounts.

The European Central Bank is likely to announce its latest interest rate hike on Thursday, and Colin Gleeson looks at what will mean for mortgage holders.

The second quarter was a good one for Irish ports: As Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports, they handled 13.1 million tonnes of merchandise in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 1 per cent on the same quarter last year, as supply chain disruption triggered by Covid-19 eased.

The Irish School of Motoring was hit with a €28,000 unfair dismissal award against a former fleet training manager. As Stephen Bourke reports, the company cannot offer the award against redundancy it has already paid out.

Goffs is one of the best known bloodstock auction houses in the world, and as Barry O’Halloran writes, it saw business rebound in its most recent fiscal year.

Continuing the earnings theme, the Intersport Elverys chain saw pretax profits shoot up by a third. Gordon has the details.

IT infrastructure provider Kyndryl has established a new consulting business to support customers as they grapple with complex technology environments. Ciara O’Brien has the story.

Ciara also reports on an outage of Meta’s WhatsApp, which left people bereft of phone notifications for a time yesterday.

Global sales of Irish whiskey are expected to grow this year by more than 10 per cent in volume despite the loss of almost all sales to Russia, which accounted for more than 5 per cent of the market before the war in Ukraine. Mark has the story.

Staying with whiskey, Ellen O’Donoghue reports on a Dublin couple who moved from Asia to Ahascragh, a small village in east Co Galway, have built Ireland’s first chimney-free, zero emission distillery.

Aircraft lessor Avolon saw its profits increase in the three months to the end of September, as the recovery in air travel continues. Barry has the details.

Ciara also reports on Cavan-based sports-tech start-up ClubSpot which is investing €250,000 in Irish sports through the creation of a free club-branded mobile app and one-year subscription for the winners of each county’s senior championships in ladies and men’s football, hurling and camogie.

The rise of China is one of the biggest stories today, but as Ruchir Sharma argues, it is a long way from overtaking the United States, if ever.

In commercial property, the owners of the Sorting Office on Dublin’s Macken Street are weighing whether to put the building on the market for as much as €320 million euros, Ronald Quinlan reports.

Ronald also reports on veteran publican Liam O’Dwyer who is understood to have bought the former AIB bank building at 52-54 Upper Baggot Street for more than €3 million.

Finally a site next to the Vicar Street venue in Dublin is back on the market with €10 million asking price.

Stay up to date with all our business news: sign up to our Business Today daily email news digest.