Other financial news in brief
Kentz agrees oil venture in Canada
Irish engineering company Kentz has agreed a joint venture with Canada's PCL Industrial Management for an oil-sands project in Alberta.
Kentz will supply electrical and other services to PCL and provide management support for the project, the Clonmel-based firm said today. Kentz has advanced about 35 per cent since it began trading in London in February. In March, the company won a $90 million, five-year contract to supply support services to Texas-based Fluor in Kuwait. Two months later, it secured a contract in Qatar it estimated at $208 million.
PCL is the largest general contracting company in Canada and the eighth largest in the US, Kentz said. (- Bloomberg)
Management buys Crown for £70m
Management at Crown Paints have bought out the company for an estimated £70 million - with support from British private-equity fund Endless.
The sale comes after the purchase by Crown's Dutch owner Akzo Nobel of Dulux-owner ICI earlier this year for £8 billion, giving the group more than half the British paint market.
The European Competition Commission forced Akzo to dispose of Crown Paints and other paint-producing assets as part of the acquisition.
Crown Paints employs 1,500 people, including 170 in Ireland. It has annual revenue in excess of £180 million in Britain and Ireland. The buyout is subject to European Commission approval, which is expected within the next two months. - ( PA)
Savings rates website launched
Dublin broker FinanceOne has launched a website, IrishSavings.ie, which compares the best regular savings rates available in the market.
The company, co-owned by Harry Slowey, a former director of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), launched IrishDeposits.ie earlier this year to compare lump-sum fixed-term rates. It receives commissions on deposits and savings placed with several banks.
Bank of Japan keeps rates at 0.5%
The Bank of Japan kept interest rates on hold yesterday and lowered its assessment of the economy for the second month in a row, underscoring concerns that the world's second largest economy may be heading into a recession.
Changing its assessment of the economy from "weakening" to "sluggish", the bank voted to keep interest rates at 0.5 per cent, the lowest level among developed economies.
Its verdict highlights the increasingly negative impact on Japan of financial instability, particularly in western markets, the slowing US economy and rising prices. The bank warned that the country still faced the triple risks of financial instability, US weakness and higher energy prices. But governor Masaaki Shirakawa said: "The possibility of Japan's economy worsening sharply is slim." - (Financial Times service)
Irish renewable energy profile rises
Ireland is now ranked as one of the top 10 attractive countries in the world for investment in renewable energy according to the Ernst Young renewable energy country attractiveness indices.
The indices, which track and score global investment in renewable energy in the first six months of 2008, ranked Ireland tenth - a rise from twelfth in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Among the factors for the rise was the publication of the all-island grid study on renewable energy and the electricity grid, the introduction of new tariffs for offshore wind and marine energy and the new tariff for marine energy devices.
