In Short

A round-up of today's other business stories in brief

Bloxham appoints new partner

Bloxham Stockbrokers appointed Pramit Ghose, head of the firm's wealth management division, as a partner at the firm.

Mr Ghose joined Bloxham as head of investment strategy in 2002 developing a range of high-performing and specialist funds. He previously ran the investment management operations of Friends First and Hibernian and is a four-time winner of the Moneymate Fund Manager of the Year award

Bloxham, which has about €500 million under management, also named Tadhg Gunnell as a partner. Mr Gunnell has been the finance and compliance manager at the 100-year-old firm since 2000.

Lloyds reports bad debt on rise

Lloyds TSB yesterday became the latest bank to report that over-indebted consumers were struggling to repay loans. In a trading update, Britain's fifth- largest bank said pretax profit for 2005 was expected to be about £3.32 billion (€4.93 billion) - in line with market expectations.

However, during the second half of 2005, the level of bad debt provisions as a proportion of average lending will rise at the group's retail bank. - (Financial Times service)

C&C executive to head Glanbia

Former C&C executive Colin Gordon is to take over as the chief executive of Glanbia's Irish consumer foods business. Mr Gordon will succeed the late Pat Brophy, who died earlier this year.

His new role will give him ultimate responsibility for brands like Avonmore milk, Yoplait yoghurts and Kilmeaden cheese.

Kenmare names broking partner

Mining company Kenmare Resources named the London unit of Mirabaud Group, one of Switzerland's biggest private bankers, as its joint stockbroker with Canaccord Capital Europe.

Kenmare Resources said Mirabaud Securities will help the company broaden its coverage in the UK and Europe as its Moma Titanium Feedstock Project nears production.

Dana oil and gas hits record levels

Oil explorer Dana Petroleum said its production of oil and gas has risen to a record 30,000 barrels of oil (equivalent) a day. However, the company also found that an exploration well in Block 211/22a in the North Sea was mostly water-bearing. - (Reuters)

Newspaper job adverts rise 2%

The number of job advertisements in Irish newspapers rose 2 per cent in 2005 to almost 199,000 from last year, and climbed 10 per cent from 2003, according to a Bank of Ireland job index.

The growth in job advertisements was led by the educational, leisure and professional sectors. Demand for retail staff was high in the run-up to Christmas. Recruitment adverts for the IT sector slumped 42 per cent in November, while the financial, healthcare and manufacturing sectors also posted declines.

Glencar drilling confirms ore

Glencar Mining completed its initial drilling programme at Komana West and found confirmation of ore-grade mineralisation.

Glencar said it was "extremely encouraged" by the results so far, even though there is no firm evidence of the orientation or controls on the mineralisation and "considerable" additional evaluation is required.