The other business news of the day in brief...

O2 adds over 5,000 customers to top 1.7m subscribers

O2 Ireland gained 5,200 customers during its second quarter of 2010.The telecoms provider now has a total of 1.71 million subscribers in Ireland, which includes more than 146,000 broadband customers.

O2 said service revenue for the quarter was €193 million, down from €196 million in the preceding quarter and from €211 million a year earlier.

The company said that data revenue as a percentage of overall service revenue continues to grow, driven by an increase in non-SMS revenues which accounted for 12.8 per cent of overall service revenues in the second quarter.

The monthly average revenue per user from mobile customers for the first six months of 2010 was €37.14, down from €39.55 for the same period last year.

Merrion go-ahead on drugs licence

Drug production company Merrion Pharmaceuticals has announced that its new facility in Citywest has been granted a manufacturing licence by the Irish Medicines Board.

Chief executive John Lynch said that it was an important milestone for the company as it would enable it to manufacture for clinical trials, and expand the number of products it could develop for itself and its partners.

PM Group's chief  to stand down

Construction services firm PM Group has announced that Pat McGrath will stand down as group chief executive on July 28th, 2011.

Mr McGrath will be succeeded by Dave Murphy, managing director of Western Europe. Mr McGrath was chief executive with PM for 11 years and will continue to work with the group after he steps down.

Kingspan names new financial chief

Insulation specialist Kingspan has announced that Geoff Doherty will join the group as chief financial officer designate and executive director with effect from January 2011.

Mr Doherty will succeed Dermot Mulvihill following his retirement.

Mr Doherty (39) is chief financial officer of Greencore. He has held positions with IWP International, PricewaterhouseCoopers and BDO Simpson in Dublin.

Irish-listed exploration company PetroNeft Resources expects to begin producing oil at its Licence 61 operation in Tomsk Oblast, Russia by late August.

PetroNeft set to begin production

In an operation update issued yesterday, PetroNeft said that construction of its production facility is almost complete, and that the fifth and sixth of nine wells planned for the Lineynoye oil field have now been successfully drilled.