In Short

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

Icon shows 51.9% income rise

Dublin-based clinical research group Icon has reported a 51.9 per cent rise in operating income to $24.4 million for the second quarter this year.

In the three months to the end of June net revenues increased 48.5 per cent to $218.3 million the company said in a statement yesterday.

Diluted earnings per share were 62 US cents, up from 45 cents per share over the same period last year.

Icon CEO Peter Gray said revenue growth had been strong over the quarter.

"It was another quarter of excellent bookings, which were $393 million gross and $337 million net.

"As a result of these strong business wins, we continue to expand our global capability through opening new offices and hiring new staff and we now have in excess of 6,500 staff working in 71 offices in 38 countries," he said.

"The strength of demand for our global services has led us to increase our revenue guidance for 2008 to $870-$890 million, and our EPS guidance to $2.46-$2.52", he said.

Trinity reports $2.3m Q2 profits

Trinity Biotech has reported a second-quarter operating profits of $2.3 million compared with $3.7 million for the same period a year ago.

The Nasdaq and Dublin-listed company said revenues dipped 3 per cent to $36.3 million, down year-on-year from the $37.4 million recorded in the three months to the end of June 2007.

The company said this was because sales of its HIV diagnostic kits to Africa were particularly strong in the second quarter of 2007 "and have now reverted to more normalised levels".

Trinity Biotech manufactures medical diagnostic equipment and said gross profit for the quarter came to $16.2 million.

SMEs earning under 1% on surplus funds

Small and medium-sized companies are earning less than 1 per cent interest on surplus funds in accounts, according to a survey conducted by Amárach Research for internet bank Rabodirect.

The survey found that 68 per cent of the businesses have current accounts in credit for 28-31 days every month with an average balance of €220,000.

Just over one in five had been offered specific business savings rates.

BoI lowers fixed mortgage rate

Bank of Ireland has reduced its two-year fixed mortgage rate for new home buyers to 5.74 per cent from 5.95 per cent and its three-year fixed rate to 5.94 per cent from 6.25 per cent.

Ericsson down 11% as income collapses

Shares in Ericsson fell 11 per cent yesterday after the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker reported net income down 70 per cent to SKr1.9bn ($318m) in the second quarter and maintained its cautious market outlook.

Sales were up just 2 per cent year-on-year to SKr48.5bn, with strong growth in the US offset by a slowdown in developing markets and in Europe.Net income fell sharply because Ericsson booked restructuring costs of SKr1.8bn.