A round-up of today's other business stories in brief
Cadbury rejects drinks arm bid
Cadbury Schweppes is understood to have turned down a second offer worth £6.4 billion to £6.9 billion (€9.37 billion to €10.1 billion) from a private equity consortium for its drinks arm, making it likely that the group will demerge its beverages business.
Cadbury's board is understood to have rejected an offer from a private equity consortium composed of Blackstone, KKR and Lion Capital last week.
It did not like the terms of the deal. These included a vendor-financing proposal, which would have involved Cadbury in financing the sale. Cadbury declined to comment.
The company has been running a sale process on its drinks arm since announcing in March that it would split its confectionery and drinks businesses. Bids were received from two consortia over the summer, the Blackstone consortium and one made up of Bain Capital, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H Lee.
80 Ryanair Milan routes ready
Ryanair is ready to launch 80 routes to two Milan airports, stepping in as struggling Alitalia cuts back in Italy's industrial heartland.
Europe's biggest low-cost carrier is prepared to use an additional 12 aircraft at Milan's Malpensa airport and another six at Serio airport in Bergamo, a company spokesman said.
The aircraft are worth more than $1 billion (€720 million) at list prices and are part of a backlog of 171 aircraft Ryanair has on order with Boeing.
The expansion would be in reaction to Alitalia's plans to almost halve its 340 daily flights from Malpensa, the spokesman said. At Malpensa, Ryanair would launch 50 European flights and 10 to Italian destinations, he said.
Ryanair management is set to discuss the plan with executives from Milan airports operator SEA in Dublin today.
Ryanair said it was ready to fill the gaps Alitalia might create, though Alessia Viviani, Ryanair's head of marketing in Italy, said it was too early to say whether it would try to buy Alitalia slots.
Glenisk dairy creates 30 jobs
Family-operated organic dairy Glenisk has created 30 jobs as part of an €8.5 million investment in its plant in Killeigh, Co Offaly.
As part of a major relaunch involving the introduction of new products, packaging and a new website, the company said it was also seeking 100 organic dairy farmers as suppliers.
Senior changes at Knock airport
Ireland West Airport Knock has announced a number of changes to its senior management team.
Airport managing director Liam Scollan has been appointed group managing director, while the director of finance and operations, Robert Grealis, will become the airport's new chief executive.
Enda Candon, formerly of Connacht Gold and a chief executive of First Western Consulting, will join the airport in the new position of director of business partnerships.
NI entrepreneur initiative
Northern Ireland Economy Minister Nigel Dodds has launched a £100,000 (€146,327) Invest Northern Ireland initiative in north Belfast to encourage local entrepreneurship.
The programme is part of a wider £1 million plan to raise awareness of enterprise and self-employment as an option in areas of economic disadvantage in Belfast.
Providence gets licensing option
Irish exploration firm Providence Resources has been awarded a new licensing option in the Celtic Sea. It has a term of one year and is adjacent to Hook Head, where Providence and its partners are testing the successfully drilled 50/11-3 appraisal well.
