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

Liquidator and receiver appointed to Chartbusters

Creditors have appointed both a liquidator and receiver to DVD rental chain Chartbusters, which closed three weeks ago with the loss of 87 jobs, writes Barry O'Halloran.

The company’s nominee, Tom Keane of Dublin accountancy firm BKRM, has been appointed liquidator to the business.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland), a secured creditor, which is pulling out of the Republic, has appointed Paul McCann of Grant Thornton as receiver to the business.

The bank has appointed him on foot of a mortgage over a Chartbusters premises on Rathmines Road in Dublin.

Worldspreads acts on low share price

The chief executive of Worldspreads says the company plans to target new investors in response to the "disappointing" performance of the company's share price.

At the company's agm in Dublin yesterday, Conor Foley said it had delivered on its strategic objectives. He was "hopeful and confident" the share price would reflect this.

The share price performance was also because a number of Irish shareholders had disposed of their shares this year, he said.

Worldspreads was listed on the AIM exchange in 2007. Last year it disposed of its Irish division.

Paddy Power loses case in Australia

Paddy Power's Australian subsidiary has lost a court challenge to a New South Wales betting tax law that it believes is discriminatory.

Sportsbet, which is 61 per owned by Paddy Power, challenged a regulation in New South Wales requiring it to pay 1.5 per cent of its betting turnover in tax.

The company argued in court that this discriminated against the online business, as the local retail monopoly, TAB, was effectively allowed to claw the charge back through other allowances, while smaller local online operators were not required to pay it.

Retail group posts 13% rise in profit

British retailer Halfords posted an expected 13 per cent rise in first-half profit, as margin gains and cost savings offset a short-term hit to sales from a new distribution centre.

The group, which runs over 460 Halfords stores and the 240- site Nationwide Autocentres car servicing business, yesterday said it expected profit for the full year to be within the range of market expectations.

The group made a pretax profit of £68.7 million (€80.86 million) in the six months to October 1st.