A round-up of today's other business news in brief
Irish banks may have loan losses of €27.7 billion
AIB, Bank of Ireland and the four other Irish banks covered by the government's deposit guarantee may have €27.7 billion of loan losses in total over the next three years, Goodbody Stockbrokers said yesterday.
AIB, the State’s biggest bank by assets, may have cumulative impairment provisions of €10.1 billion in the three years to 2011, and Bank of Ireland may have loan losses of €8.6 billion, analysts led by Dublin-based Eamonn Hughes said.
Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life Permanent, EBS Building Society and Irish Nationwide Building Society may have losses of €9 billion between them. Ireland’s decade-long property boom has fizzled out, leaving banks grappling with losses on loans to developers. – (Bloomberg)
BoI launches first-time fund
Bank of Ireland will today launch a €1 billion mortgage fund for first-time buyers, offering a one-year fixed interest rate of 2.45 per cent.
This is below the existing lowest rate of 2.49 per cent in the market, launched by AIB last week. As part of the Government’s €7 billion recapitalisation, the banks have agreed to increase new lending to first-time buyers by 30 per cent this year.
Bank seeks order over unpaid debt
A bank has sought court orders charging an unpaid €6.3 million debt due to it against a businessman’s shareholding in two nursing homes.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday noted none of the debt due to Investec Bank’s Irish branch had been paid by Paul Minogue and was satisfied it was an appropriate case for the shareholding charging orders.
He adjourned the matter for two weeks, when Mr Minogue will have the opportunity to argue against the orders being made absolute. They relate to shareholdings in Cloverland Healthcare Holding Ltd and Cloverland Health Care Ltd.
Talk of rights offering by CRH
Shares in CRH, the maker and distributor of building materials, fell 6.35 per cent to €17.56 in Dublin after reports that it is considering a €1 billion rights offering.
The firm is considering selling shares, the Sunday Telegraph reported this week, without saying where it obtained the information
AIB action over possession orders
AIB has brought a court action against a businessman aimed at securing possession of three properties in Co Waterford to meet a €4.3 million judgment secured by the bank last June.
AIB is seeking the orders against Thomas Farrell, Monovoy, Tramore, Co Waterford, arising from mortgage loans granted in August 2006. In June 2008, it secured judgment from the Commercial Court for €4.287 million against Mr Farrell, plus costs.
Mr Farrell has appealed that judgment to the Supreme Court but the bank claims it is entitled to the possession orders because he has not sought a stay on the orders.
German carmaker BMW is shedding about 850 jobs at its Mini plant in Oxford, England, as it cuts back production in the wake of a 35 per cent slump in sales.
The company, which produced 235,000 cars at the plant last year – its only Mini factory worldwide – said it would now operate five days a week instead of seven.
Sales of the Mini slumped 34.5 per cent in January to just over 10,100 worldwide, according to data supplied by the company. – (Reuters)
