A roundup of today's other business news in brief:
Blue Ocean in deal to supply 300-ship fleet
Irish maritime communications group Blue Ocean Wireless has agreed a five-year deal to install its GSM telecommunications equipment on 300 ships in the fleet of Hamburg-based company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).
This is Blue Ocean's biggest contract to date and is potentially worth "many millions" of dollars to the fledgling Irish company, according to its chief executive Robert Johnson.
"It is the biggest order we have received in one fell swoop," Mr Johnson told The Irish Times yesterday. "They had evaluated our service on two of their ships and come back to us and said they would like to roll it out across their entire fleet."
Circle Oil in Morocco find
Circle Oil, the oil and gas exploration company, has confirmed a gas discovery at the Sebou Permit in Morocco, and the well has been completed as a potential producer.
The firm has also indicated that another well in Morocco, the Ouled N'Zala concession, is likely to be commercial, while the Serdouk exploration well in Tunisia has been completed and logged by Circle Oil, but no oil shows were encountered.
BoI's 250m SME support fund
Bank of Ireland has introduced a €250 million "business support fund" aimed small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that have encountered difficulties raising working capital.
Money from the fund will available to existing and new SME customers at a variable interest rate of 7.5 per cent, the bank said.
Damian Young, head of small business with the bank, said the fund would be "no more expensive" than other lines of credit available to SMEs and was designed to support viable businesses finding it difficult to trade through the current downturn.
Bank marketing role for Mohan
Former Setanta Sports executive Mark Mohan has been appointed head of marketing and product development at Bank of Scotland (Ireland).
From mid-January, Mr Mohan will have overall responsibility for marketing and product development for both the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and Halifax brands.
Babcock & Brown in shares move
Australian investment bank Babcock & Brown, which controls Eircom through a listed satellite fund, sought an extension to the voluntary suspension of its shares as it tries to raise cash to replace a deposit seized by one of its lenders.
Babcock, whose shares are down more than 99 per cent in the last 12 months, said it expected to make a further announcement in relation to the discussions with its banks by tomorrow.
Any failure to raise the cash could result in the bank being place into receivership.
UCD business school makes list
The Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School at UCD has been ranked 24th in the Financial TimesEuropean Business School rankings 2008.
The UCD Smurfit School's European ranking is an improvement on its position of 36th last year. No other Irish institution made the rankings.
