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Mortgage bills up 12%; Musgrave cashes in on Covid; and Ireland to lose out on gas cap

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Mortgage bills jumped 12 per cent even ahead of the ECB rate rises. Photograph; iStock

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Fri Nov 18 2022 - 06:54

Monthly mortgage repayments for Irish borrowers rose by 12 per cent in the two years to the end of June, according to data from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland – even before the European Central Bank (ECB) started to hike official rates. Joe Brennan has the details.

Musgrave, the Cork-headquartered retail group that owns SuperValu and Centra, increased sales last year by 1 per cent to breach the ¤4.5 billion barrier, writes Mark Paul. The family-owned company’s pretax profits also rose by about 12 per cent to more than €110 million.

A proposal for a limit on wholesale gas prices developed by the European Commission at the insistence of a group of member states would not apply to Irish purchases, writes Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary, as we buy our gas supplies in the British market.

In Agenda, Cliff Taylor looks at four lessons from the dot.com bubble and sizes them up against the current travails of the tech sector.

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Ahead of its annual general meeting, a major shareholder advisory firm has highlighted its concerns about Swiss-Irish baking group Aryzta’s plans to allow its head, Urs Jordi, to continue in his dual roles of chairman and chief executive, writes Joe Brennan.

The Irish Council of Civil Liberties has written a letter to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager arguing that the parent of social media group Facebook, Meta, cannot comply with new EU data laws, and urging her to take action.

Ergo, the largest privately owned Irish IT services company, has agreed to acquire Irish software development business BoatyardX in a deal said to be worth in excess of ¤10 million. Ian Curran reports.

Profits at the UK business of Galway-headquartered retail toy giant Smyths Toys almost doubled last year to a record £18.11 million (€20.77 million).

Also in Britain, chancellor of the exchequer told parliament that the UK is in recession as he announced £55 billion (¤63 billion) of tax rises and spending cuts intended to restore the country’s reputation and shore up its frail balance sheet.

Former Independent News and Media plc (INM) executives, Gavin O’Reilly and Karl Brophy. want the High Court to order former INM executive chairman Leslie Buckley to provide further disclosure of documents related to the alleged data breach at the company in 2014.

A fuel and oil distributor and retailer has been warned that it faces a Revenue bill of €400,678 if it doesn’t repay Covid-19 supports of €100,169 for which it was not eligible without “unreasonable delay”. Gordon Deegan reports.

John FitzGerald writes that Germany’s reliance on energy-intensive industry means its economy faces more challenging times as the energy crisis bites.

And in world of work, Olive Keogh looks at research that shows businesses are more successful when they employ people who are ethnically and educationally diverse.

In Caveat, Mark Paul takes a look at the pressures the Ukraine refugee crisis has put on the hotel sector and wonders just what will happen when the short-term arrangements they have signed up to come to an end.

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