In Short

A roundup of today's other finance stories in brief:

Telecom arm of Logica loses €33m

Results for technology services group LogicaCMG show that its telecoms products division, a significant portion of which was acquired by a consortium led by Irish firm Atlantic Bridge Ventures on June 19th, had an operating loss of £22.6 million (€33.36 million) in the first six months of this year.

This compares to an operating profit of £3.2 million in the six months ended June 30th, 2006.

Brian Long, managing partner of Atlantic Bridge, said it had not acquired a number of loss-making units associated with the telecoms products division or all of its overheads, primarily related to personnel.

The Atlantic Bridge consortium paid £265 million for the Logica products and business which it has rebranded Acision. The consortium includes Dermot Desmond's private equity vehicle International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) and US firm Access Industries.

Carroll raises ICG stake to 19.6%

Liam Carroll, the property developer, has continued to buy Irish Continental Group (ICG) shares at €25, the takeover price offered by the management buyout team, Aella.

Mr Carroll's broker told the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday that the developer and his wife now held 19.63 per cent of ICG, having bought the latest batch of stock at prices between €24.50 and €25.00.

Cubic get €5m for expansion plans

Cork-based Cubic Telecom has received €5 million in backing from private investors and says it will now bid to "become the world's first truly global mobile service provider".

Cubic is planning to introduce a service which will eliminate the current high roaming charges facing international travellers. Its services will initially be launched in Europe, north America and Australia.

Sales boost for IAWS-linked firm

Hiestand, the Swiss baker that is 32 per cent-owned by Irish food firm IAWS, has reported strong first-half results. Sales were up by almost 50 per cent to 353.2 million Swiss francs (€215 million), while earnings before interest and tax rose by nearly 45 per cent.

The company said it is expanding rapidly into new markets, pointing to particular opportunities in Eastern Europe.

An Post fails to deliver on targets

An Post fell short of the postal regulator's targets for mail delivery times in the three months to the end of June.

Comreg, the postal regulatory authority, said An Post had delivered 78 per cent of mail in the Republic within one working day compared to a target of 94 per cent. Some 98 per cent of mail was delivered within three working days, compared to Comreg's target of 99.5 per cent. An Post chief executive Donal Connell said the company is continuing its drive to improve service quality.

IN&M buys back 250,000 shares

Independent News & Media (IN&M) has continued its buyback programme with the purchase of 250,000 shares.

The company paid between €3.29 and €3.33 for the stock, which will be held in treasury. Independent closed at €3.32 last night, up 3 cent.

Advertising rises in Republic titles

Johnston Press has reported a 10 per cent increase in first-half advertising revenues for its titles in the Republic.

The British publisher owns a range of Irish newspapers, including the Leinster Leaderand the Kilkenny People.The Irish performance bucked a group trend, with Johnston Press as a whole recording a 4.8 per cent fall in first-half operating profit.