In Short

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

Deutsche Bank to raise up to €9bn to boost capital ratios

Deutsche Bank is poised to raise €8 billion to €9 billion of new equity to strengthen its capital ratios in line with tougher regulatory requirements due to be finalised this weekend.

According to sources close to the plan, Germany’s biggest bank aims to announce the offering on Monday or Tuesday, in a deal that could prompt a string of other capital raisings by banks around the world. Deutsche’s rights issue would rank as the biggest by a European bank this year.

The deal comes as global regulatory chiefs prepare to meet in Basel, Switzerland, tomorrow to approve a set of new capital and liquidity measures. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010

Fallon & Byrne posts €21,000 loss

Dublin restaurant and foodhall Fallon & Byrne slipped into the red last year, posting a loss of €21,000 compared to a pre-tax profit of €217,000 in 2008.

Turnover fell by 10 per cent from €11.2 million in 2008 to just over €10 million last year, according to documents just filed with Companies Office. The 2008 figures were filed only in July.

Operating profit fell from €323,655 in 2008 to €61,642 in 2009.

Japanese bank files for bankruptcy

The Incubator Bank of Japan, an unlisted lender specialising in small business loans, has filed for bankruptcy protection, marking the first Japanese bank failure where regulators will let some depositors go out of pocket.

Japan's central bank said it expected no adverse impact on the country's banking system from Incubator Bank, which is the first domestic bank to collapse since 2003. – (Reuters)

CIF is warned of job losses

Employment will not return to 2007 levels until 2024, consultancy firm Ernst & Young said yesterday, revising a forecast it made three months ago that the economy would return to peak employment levels in 2021.

Speaking at the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) annual conference in Dublin, Ernst Young economic adviser Neil Gibson said 50,000 jobs could be lost in the construction sector in the next 12 to 18 months. "However, there is a positive in that we don't expect the sector to contract any more than it already has."

Opportunities offered by the green economy was a central theme of the conference.

Peter Brennan of EPS Consulting said there was €400 billion of funding for projects around the green economy in Britain and Ireland.

"There are huge opportunities in the sector," he said.