In Short

A roundup of today's other stories in brief

Liam Carroll increases ICG stake to 29.75%

Property developer Liam Carroll has increased his stake in Irish Continental Group (ICG) to 29.75 per cent, less than a week after the ferry operator came out of a near eight-month offer period.

In a statement to the stock exchange, he said he had bought 772,000 shares, bringing his total holding in the ferry operator to 7.17 million units. Mr Carroll was known to want to increase his stake to 29.9 per cent, the last level before which he would have to make a bid for the entire company.

The offer period at ICG ended last week when potential bidder Moonduster failed to make a formal offer for the company.

A €24-a-share offer by the management-led group, Aella, had earlier been rejected by shareholders.

Anglo funds Boston property purchase

Anglo Irish Bank has provided $87 million (€59 million) of funding for the purchase of 10 buildings in Boston's Seaport District.

The bank said yesterday the property portfolio had been bought in a joint venture between one of its Irish-based private clients and Massachusetts-based property company Crosspoint Associates, in a deal worth a total of $120.5 million.

The portfolio comprises 680,950sq ft of space in 10 buildings, which are currently leased by Thomson Financial.

Venture capital funding hits €30m

Almost €30 million in venture capital funds was invested in innovative young Irish firms in the third quarter, up from just €9.2 million in the same period last year, according to a study by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones Venture One.

The number of deals increased from four to five. There was also a substantial increase in the value of late-stage deals, totalling €19.1 million in the third quarter, compared to zero in the same period last year and €3.7 million in the second quarter of this year.

IL&P to recruit 100 financial advisers

Irish Life & Permanent is to recruit an additional 100 personal financial advisers over the next 12 months with the aim of bringing its team to almost 400 by the end of 2008.

A spokesman for the company said the new additions would help the bank cater for the increased wealth that has been generated in the Republic in recent years, and in particular the expected 30 per cent growth in the group's retail life and pensions business.

Ryanair announces new Shannon routes

Ryanair has launched eight new routes from Shannon to Birmingham, Fuerteventura, Kaunas, Leeds, Luton, Riga, Tenerife and Dublin.

The Dublin route is its first domestic service from Shannon. The airline now has 31 Shannon routes and says it will deliver two million passengers to the midwest in the coming year.

GM reports record $39bn quarterly loss

General Motors (GM) reported a record $39 billion (€26.6 billion) quarterly loss after three money-losing years forced the company to write down the value of future tax benefits. The loss, excluding the tax writedown, was $2.80 a share, more than 12 times analysts' estimates.

Mortgage-related losses at GM's partly-owned finance unit overwhelmed car sales that were its highest yet.

Competing carmaker Toyota said yesterday that its second-quarter profit rose 11 per cent to 450.9 billion yen (€2.7 billion), beating estimates. - (Bloomberg)

Guide to financial terms published

The National Adult Literacy Agency and EBS have published a new guide to financial terms to help the 25 per cent of adults who have difficulties with simple numeracy tasks.

Making Cents contains eight chapters on subjects such as controlling and managing money, credit and borrowing, income and accounts, and insurance.