A round up of today's other business news in short.
Elan likely to sell quarter of company to raise $1.5bn
Pharmaceutical firm Elan is likely to sell up to a quarter of the company as part of its plan to raise about $1.5 billion to reduce debt and strengthen cash reserves for product development.
Elan is due to report fourth-quarter results today. Mr McLaughlin’s comments come as minority investor Jack Schuler called for sale plans to be scrapped and the appointment of more experienced directors.
Separately, Elan released data for MS patients treated with Tysabri over the past two years, showing that 37 per cent of patients remained free of disease activity, compared to 7 per cent of placebo-treated patients.
AIB warning over phishing scam
Customers of AIB’s online banking service are being targeted by a phising e-mail scam, which purports to be from the bank in an effort to get customers to provide their user names and passwords.
Security expert Brian Honan said the e-mails began circulating over the weekend and appear to come from a server in China. A spokesman for AIB said the bank would never request customers to provide their details via e-mail.
Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide
Nissan said it will cut 20,000 jobs and post its first loss in nine years as the global recession cripples car demand and a stronger yen ravages the value of overseas earnings.
Nissan expects a net loss of 265 billion yen for the year ending March 31st, compared with its October estimate of 160 billion yen in net income.
– (Bloomberg)
Ely Property appoints Pollard
Dublin-based student accommodation provider Ely Property Group has appointed Mark Pollard director of development. Mr Pollard has been recruited from property developer Treasury Holdings.
Waterford Crystal
An article in Business This Weekstated that, at present, no goods were being shipped out of Waterford Crystal and no orders were being processed.
The receiver points out that Waterford Crystal continues to trade and that sales of products continue as normal. Orders for available products are still being taken and these orders will be fulfilled from the significant stock levels that currently exist.
