In Short

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

Regulator advertises for new chief

The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority has advertised for a replacement for chief executive Liam O'Reilly who is retiring from his position early next year.

In an advertisement in The Irish Times today, the financial regulator seeks a candidate with "a strong record of leadership and achievement".

The new chief executive should also have a good knowledge of financial services and "international regulatory principles and standards".

Mr O'Reilly was appointed as interim chief executive of the newly formed Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority at the end of 2002, having worked at the Central Bank since 1967.

His appointment was formalised in March 2003.

BAE in deal with Galway firm

UK aviation group BAE Systems Aerostructures yesterday signed a five-year preferred supplier deal with Galway-based Composites Testing Laboratory (CTL).

Under the terms of the agreement, CTL will be the preferred testing laboratory for all composite material testing requirements for BAE.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin welcomed the agreement saying it was a great vote of confidence in CTL's capabilities.

Petrel raises €2.6m in placing

Oil Exploration group Petrel Resources said it has raised £2.61 million through a share placing to fund its Iraqi exploration activities. The four million new shares are expected to start trading on London's AIM on October 13th.

Separately, Petrel also said it has signed an agreement with the Iraqi ministry of oil to start assessing the potential of the Merjan Block, an oil field situated about 45 kilometres west of the city of Karbala.

African Diamonds said yesterday the directors of De Beers Prospecting Botswana now hold a right of first refusal over 17 million shares, or 25.4 per cent of the mining group's share capital.

Providence ends well drilling

Providence Resources said it has completed drilling a well on the West Lennox oil field off the coast of Liverpool and is currently examining the results. Providence has a 10 per cent stake in the venture.

Lloyd's insurance market to expand

The Lloyd's of London insurance market is expected to increase its capacity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Unveiling the market's first interim results yesterday, Nick Prettejohn, chief executive, said: "Post-Katrina, instead of capacity going down, we would expect capacity to go up. All bets are off" on how much business the market will write as syndicates review their capacity, he said.

As premium rates have softened this year, Lloyd's has been cutting capacity so as to minimise the volatility of the insurance cycle. Net written premiums were cut from £7.7 billion in the first half of last year to £6.5 billion in the first six months of 2005. However, with total insured losses from hurricanes Katrina and Rita expected to exceed $40 billion, premiums are predicted to rise. - (Financial Times Service)

Cadbury cuts projections

Cadbury Schweppes yesterday said higher commodity prices and the bankruptcy of a US bottling plant had increased its production costs, leading it to scale back its financial projections for the remainder of the year.

Cadbury's shares fell 4.7 per cent to 558.5p after the beverages and confectionery company said it was unlikely to meet its full-year profit margin targets. - (Financial Times Service)