A round up of today's other stories in brief...
High Court orders Lacey to hearing
The High Court has ordered former National Irish Bank chief executive Jim Lacey to attend for cross-examination at a hearing in which the Director of Corporate Enforcement is seeking a court order disqualifying him from involvement in the management of any company on grounds of unfitness.
Justice Roderick Murphy made the order for the cross-examination yesterday and also refused an application by Declan McGrath, for Lacey, to put a stay on it in the event of an appeal.
The judge had been earlier told that Mr Lacey, while not consenting to an order for cross-examination, did accept, because of an earlier court decision in the case of former NIB executive director Barry Seymour, that he could not resist an application for his cross-examination at the disqualification hearing.
Carroll takes ICG stake to 25.84%
Property developer Liam Carroll has taken his stake in Irish Continental Group to 25.84 per cent, spending a further €1.3 million on the company's shares.
Mr Carroll bought 45,000 shares at a price of €25.75 and 7,531 shares at a price of €25.50.
ICG's shares closed yesterday at €25.75, unchanged on the previous day's closing price.
Moody's says Irish credit rating solid
Only a substantial policy change by the Government towards large deficit spending, generating a trend towards high public debt, would put the Republic's strong credit rating into question, according to the debt ratings agency Moody's.
The agency said in a research note released yesterday that the Republic's fiscal position was solid and the country's rating stood at the highest on its scale. Moody's said the Republic faced growing price competition due to EU enlargement and infrastructural bottlenecks constraining future growth.
Warning of insider trading at EADS
France's stock market regulator has raised the alarm over possible insider trading on a "massive scale" inside EADS, the Franco-German aerospace group.
The Autorité des Marchés Financières (AMF) has focused on share dealings by 21 past and present senior executives at EADS and its Airbus aircraft subsidiary, and the group's two core shareholders, Lagardère and Daimler. The disclosure was made in Le Figaro. - (Financial Times service)
Northern Rock and JC Flowers talk
Northern Rock's advisers are in talks with US buyout firm JC Flowers over a rescue bid for the stricken bank, as US firm Cerberus also considers a move, sources familiar with the matter said. News of the potential bidders lifted Northern Rock's battered shares by more than 14 per cent yesterday.
JC Flowers, founded by former Goldman Sachs banker Chris Flowers, has secured more than £15 billion that could be used in a takeover of the UK lender, one of the sources said, largely to refinance loans. - (Reuters)
First patient gets AGI's bowel drug
Pharmaceutical company AGI Therapeutics has announced that the first patient in its Phase III study on its irritable bowel syndrome drug Rezular has received the medication.
Patient enrolment for the trial, which will involve 1,200 male and female patients, will continue into the first quarter of 2008, the Irish-listed company said.
