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Ulster Bank secures order against firm

Ulster Bank has secured a court order requiring a scaffolding firm, Advanced Scaffolding Equipment (Ireland) Ltd, to repay loans of some €1.54 million.

The bank also secured judgment for €1.3 million against Austin Mortimer, Dalgan Road, Shrule, Co Mayo, relating to guarantees given by him for €1.13 million in loans made to Advanced Scaffolding, of which Mr Mortimer was a director, and relating to a separate loan given to him for €190,000.

Decline in sales of Magners slows

The decline in sales of C&C's Magners cider in Britain slowed during the four weeks to March 22nd, according to Davy stockbrokers, citing figures from market researcher ACNielsen.

Davy said the quantity of Magners sold in shops in Britain fell 3.5 per cent in the period, compared with a 7.8 per cent fall in February and a 13.3 per cent fall in January.

Growth in Andor sales and orders

Andor Technology, the Belfast-based manufacturer of scientific instruments, said yesterday that sales and order levels have grown across all market segments including the US.

In an update for the first three months to March 31st, 2008, Andor said trading was in line with expectations.

UTV gets go-ahead to buy FM104

UTV Media has got the final go-ahead for its proposed €52 million acquisition of commercial Dublin-based radio station FM104. Shareholders approved the deal at an extraordinary general meeting in London yesterday.

Completion of the acquisition is expected by Thursday.

Google and Yahoo most popular sites

Search engines Google and Yahoo have emerged as the most popular websites among the Republic's 1.5 million internet users, according to a survey from Net Behaviour.

The study found that 78 per cent of users visited Google in the last month, making it the most popular website.

In second place was Yahoo with 49 per cent, followed by Aer Lingus and Ryanair with 48 per cent each.

Maybefriends.com buys rival website

Irish online dating website Maybefriends.com has acquired Cork-based online dating service Singleinthecity.ie for an undisclosed sum.

Maybefriends.com was itself bought recently by Denis O'Brien-owned Saongroup.com.

Digiweb acquires web-hosting firm

Broadband firm Digiweb has bought web-hosting and domain registrar company Novara as part of its plan to expand its services in the Irish hosting market.

Novara operates under the trade names host.ie and register.ie.

AIB, Anglo and CRH on award shortlist

AIB, Anglo Irish Bank and CRH have been shortlisted for this year's Investor Relations award in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

AIB and CRH have also been nominated for the best internet services for investor relations and also for the best corporate literature.

Anglo features in several categories, including an award for best investor meetings and best corporate governance. Bank of Ireland and CRH are also nominated in the latter category.

More than 80 analysts and portfolio managers were surveyed by Investor Relations magazine to decide the winners.

The awards ceremony takes place on Thursday.