In Short

A round-up of other business news in brief

Ryanair to close Valencia base after row

Ryanair is shutting its base in Valencia airport in Spain, with the loss of 70 weekly flights, following a row with the local council.

The Irish airline operated 10 routes from the airport including three to England: Stansted, East Midlands and Liverpool.

Flights on all 10 routes, which were used by 750,000 passengers a year, will be cancelled from November 4th, Ryanair said yesterday. The airline claims up to 750 local jobs will be lost as a result of the move.

Ryanair said it would maintain limited operations to Valencia from other bases. - (Reuters)

Energy firm to create 70 jobs

A green energy company is to create 70 jobs in a €12 million investment in Co Cavan.

Pauwels Trafo, which supplies transformers to European markets, was established in Cavan town in 1978 and already employs 374 people.

The firm said the new investment will help it to capitalise on the global growth in wind power as an alternative energy source.

Pauwels International, headquartered in Belgium, employs more than 2,000 people in Ireland, Belgium, Canada, the US and Indonesia. - (Reuters)

NTMA to seek to raise 8.4bn

Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has said it is seeking to raise € 18.4 billion through a combination of syndicated bond issues and auctions next year.

"The NTMA's objective is to further develop a continuous and liquid yield curve for Irish Government bonds," it said in a statement.

"The NTMA is in a comfortable cash position and will decide on the timing of its issuance in the light of market conditions."

The NTMA, the asset and liability management arm of the Irish Government, said the 2009 Budget showed a borrowing requirement of €13.4 billion.

A further €5 billion was sought due to a maturing bond next year. - (Reuters)

Microsoft results better than thought

Microsoft reported better than expected quarterly profit and reduced its outlook less than many investors had feared in the face of tough economic conditions.

While demand for its products weakened near the end of the September quarter as uncertainty from financial crisis took hold, Microsoft said new releases of computer server software and database software pushed revenue higher.

"Investors were prepared for the worst given the credit crisis. Investors should be pleased with Microsoft's decent first quarter and only a modest reduction in full-year 2009 guidance, said Andy Miedler, analyst at Edward Jones.

Microsoft posted a net profit of $4.37 billion, or 48 cents per diluted share, in its fiscal first quarter ended September 30th, versus a profit of $4.29 billion, or 45 cent per diluted share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 9 per cent to $15.06 billion. - (Reuters)

Sharp fall in air traffic reported

International air cargo and passenger traffic fell sharply in September, in a sign that airlines and exporters are in "dramatically difficult" straits, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said yesterday.

IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani said cross-border freight shipments - a key reading of the health of world trade - were 7.7 per cent lower last month than in September 2007, in the worst reading since the technology bubble burst in 2001.

International air passenger traffic was 2.9 per cent lower in the month, in the first year-on-year monthly drop since the Sars epidemic kept people from flying in 2003, he said. - (Reuters)