In short

A roundup of today's other stories in brief.

US software firm to create 80 Belfast jobs

US software company 3Par is to create some 80 jobs in a £9 million (€12.96 million) investment in Belfast supported by Invest Northern Ireland.

3Par said it based its decision to chose Belfast partly on the availability of quality third-level graduates. The company, based in California, is creating high-value software development positions and will receive about £1.2 million in state support.

Ballymore's chief operating officer

The former group director for tax and corporate finance with the Smurfit Kappa group, David Brophy, has been appointed chief operating officer with Seán Mulryan's Ballymore Properties.

The position is a newly created one with the property group, which specialises in large-scale mixed-use developments.

Novate Medical raises €4m

Medical device firm Novate Medical has raised €4 million in a fundraising led by ACT Venture Capital and and Seroba BioVentures, which specialises in life sciences.

Enterprise Ireland also participated in the funding for the young Galway firm, which hopes to develop and commercialise technology for coronary filters.

Demand for US securities falls

International investors bought a net of $19.2 billion (€13.7 billion) in long-term US securities in July, the lowest inflow in seven months, the US treasury department said yesterday.

Demand for long-maturity securities such as bonds, notes and equities hit its lowest level since December and was below the $85 billion forecast in a Reuters poll.

It was also below a downwardly revised net inflow of $97.3 billion reported in June. - (Reuters)

Tullow abandons Namibia well

Tullow Oil has abandoned one of its wells in the Greater Kudu field offshore Namibia after the reservoir permeability was found to be lower than at a nearby site. Chief executive Aidan Heavey described the result as disappointing, but said he did not expect it to affect the progress of the group's other projects in the area.

Carroll adds to ICG stake again

Property developer Liam Carroll has spent a further €4.7 million adding to his stake in Irish Continental Group (ICG).

In a statement to the stock exchange yesterday, Mr Carroll said he now held a 21.76 per cent stake in the ferry company.

Earlier this week, he overtook the two bidders seeking to take over ICG, becoming its biggest shareholder.

Celtic Resources shares jump 12%

Shares in Irish-registered mining group Celtic Resources jumped 12 per cent yesterday after the company said it had received an offer which may lead to it being bought.

Russian mining group Severstal last month bought a 22 per cent stake in Celtic Resources and could be the potential bidder. Celtic Resources declined to name the origin of the approach.

Debenhams 'on track' for profit

British department store group Debenhams said yesterday it was on track to report full-year profit before tax and exceptional items, in line with expectations.

It said the exceptional items related to the acquisition of Roches Stores and the assignment of the lease on the Jervis Street store in Dublin.