Ganley’s US court case takes a turn

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk


A judge in New York has rejected Declan Ganley’s claim that a nearly $20 million (€18.4 million) default debt judgment had been satisfied by the value of shares he surrendered in Rivada Networks, his telecommunications company. Barry J Whyte reports that New York supreme court judge Jennifer Schecter said in a ruling this week that “there is no credible evidence” to support Mr Ganley’s assertion that the debt had been wiped out by “the value of the 20,000 Rivada shares” that were auctioned in October 2023.

UK banking giant Barclays’s European Union headquarters in Dublin saw its assets grow almost 8 per cent last year to €143 billion as it continued to explore moving the hub to Paris. Joe Brennan has the details.

What is Leo Varadkar’s economic legacy as Taoiseach? Eoin Burke-Kennedy breaks down what is, in truth, a mixed bag of achievements.

Joe also reports that Hostelworld, the hostel-booking group that targets millennial and Gen-Z backpackers, has agreed to repay €9.6 million of warehoused taxes, racked up during the Covid-19 pandemic, over the next three years, the company disclosed as it reported annual results.

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Holidaymakers face a squeeze on car parking at Dublin Airport this summer after regulators blocked a deal that could have reopened 6,200 spaces left idle since the pandemic. Barry O’Halloran has the story.

In his column, John FitzGerald looks at why, despite all our gains in life expectancy and general health in recent decades, socio-economic class still has a huge impact. In short, why a strategy to reduce poverty is hugely important to improve public health.

Michael Burke, the founder and long-time managing director of Chanelle Pharmaceuticals, has been chosen as The Irish Times Business Person of the Month for February, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.

In Business This Week, Kevin O’Sullivan reports on how the rush to build wind farms off the west coast of Ireland is spurring a new wave of development in rural Galway.

In the interview of the week, Dermot Smurfit Jnr recounts the end of his time at former company GAN and tells Barry J Whyte what he plans next.

It’s fair to wonder what Irish bank executives may think when they look at their former colleagues overseas. Former AIB chief financial officer Mark Byrne and ex-Bank of Ireland boss Francesca McDonagh have enjoyed big pay-days in Portugal and Germany since leaving these shores. Now former AIB boss David Duffy is in line for a multi million euro pay-day after the UK’s Nationwide Building Society is set to buy Virgin Money UK, which he leads.

Barry also reports on a claim from the hospitality industry that close to 1,600 restaurant jobs have been lost due to Government policies such as increases in the minimum wage, VAT and social insurance.

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