Planet Business

BARRY O'HALLORANlooks back on the week in business

 €200mThe offer made by a Liam McCaffrey-led consortium for parts of the Quinn Group

"We are probably going to be in a bear market for five to 10 years"- Viktor Shvets, head of research and strategy, Samsung Securities Asia, has some good news for your pension fund

STATUS UPDATE

Tiger Woods: Now earns $25,743 for every round of golf, the lowest since his rookie season, when it was $24,113, he could slip below that if he fails to make the top 28 this weekend.

Mickey Mouse: Despite an 11 per cent boost to quarterly profits, analysts are trimming their predictions for Disney's shares as they believe theme park visits and movies are low priorities for consumers.

THE QUESTION

Who will be next to lose their AAA status?

France and Britain emerged as early favourites to follow the US and lose their AAA ratings.

As riots convulsed London and other British cities, analysts warned that if the fallout were to cause a collapse of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition, ratings agencies could lower their assessment of Britain’s creditworthiness.

Rumours of problems at French banks sparked fears that ratings agencies could be prompted to act and sent investors running from the likes of Société Générale and Crédit Agricole.

French premier Nicolas Sarkozy (right) broke off his holiday for an emergency meeting with government colleagues in Paris.

Meanwhile, the country’s finance ministry issued a statement officially denying that its rating was under threat.

So France has nothing to worry about, at least until it denies a bailout is imminent.

Commodity Watch

China’s economic growth has driven up the price of pork there by almost 60 per cent in the last year. According to its bureau of statistics, pork prices are up 56.7 per cent since July 2010. Meanwhile, the West’s economic turmoil is having a similar impact on the price of gold. Goldman Sachs is predicting that the precious metal’s price could hit $1,860 an ounce by the year’s end – even though it doesn’t go at all well with black bean sauce.