In Short

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

Lloyd's plays down exposure to credit crisis

Lloyd's of London has played down its exposure to claims arising from the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market and the wider credit crisis, as the world's oldest insurance market reported a second year of record profit, at £3.85 billion.

Luke Savage, finance director, said if the turmoil in the financial markets were a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake, Lloyd's would "just be feeling distant tremors".

While Lloyd's has been setting money aside to pay potential claims, the market has cut back on covering financial institutions after incurring claims from events such as the Enron and WorldCom scandals. This will limit its exposure during the current financial crisis.

The comments came as Lloyd's increased its pretax profit from £3.66 billion in 2006 to £3.85 billion in 2007. - (Financial Times service)

New chairman of takeover panel

Former attorney general Rory Brady has been appointed chairman of the Irish Takeover Panel. He succeeds Daniel O'Keefe SC, who has resigned following his appointment as a High Court judge.

Announcing Mr Brady's new role yesterday, Central Bank governor John Hurley thanked Mr O'Keefe for his work in the development of the panel since its establishment in 1997. The panel is the statutory body responsible for monitoring and supervising takeovers involving companies in Ireland.

Mr Brady was attorney general to the last government. He is a practising barrister and a former chairman of the Bar Council.

Cork firm in liquidation

A Cork company that provided broadband via satellite has been put into liquidation. Daniel Fitzpatrick, a director of MediaSatellite Ireland, which also traded as MediaSat, said the directors decided to wind up the business after a potential investment from an Italian company failed to materialise due to the liquidity problems in the financial markets.

The company has debts of €1.8 million. Mr Fitzpatrick said he and his brothers, Rory and Shane, founded the company eight years ago and it had more than 1,000 customers at its peak, but this had fallen to 300.

Accountant William Cuddy of Cuddy & O'Leary was appointed liquidator.

M &S chief won't get higher salary as chairman

Marks & Spencer, the largest UK clothes retailer, said yesterday that chief executive Stuart Rose's salary won't be raised when he becomes executive chairman in June as it seeks to placate investors who criticised the appointment. Investors will vote on his re-election annually instead of every three years, and the roles of chairman and chief executive will be split again in July 2011.

The plan to give Mr Rose both jobs has drawn criticism from investor Legal & General. - (Bloomberg)

Credit union league apoints new chief

The Irish League of Credit Unions last night announced the appointment of Kieron Brennan as its new chief executive from May.

Mr Brennan (48) is currently programme manager with Pobal, a not-for-profit company focused on community development and financing which manages programmes on behalf of the Government and the EU. He was previously the Ireland manager of Triodos Bank, a European ethical banks.

The league represents the interests of 521 credit unions.

MySpace moves to challenge Apple

News Corp's MySpace social networking site will attempt to challenge Apple's hegemony in the burgeoning digital music market after signing a deal with three of the largest record companies - Universal, EMI and Warner Music - to launch its own music service.

MySpace Music is expected to debut later this year - (Financial Times service)

Bayern LB reveals major writedowns 

The crisis in German state banking sparked by subprime investments deepened yesterday when Bayern LB revealed writedowns of €4.3 billion and had to call on its owners to protect it from further losses.

Bayern LB yesterday revealed €2.3 billion of writedowns in 2007, driving its net income for the year down from €989 million to €175 million. (Financial Times service)