InShort

A round-up of today's other business news.

Desmond is seller of stake in Greencore

An investment vehicle owned by the financier Dermot Desmond has confirmed that it sold its stake in Greencore last Wednesday. Bottin International Investments said it no longer had any interest in Greencore.

Shares in Greencore added seven cent, or 1.7 per cent, to €4.17 yesterday with nearly 1.7 million shares changing hands.

Investors are awaiting the next move from property developer Liam Carroll, who paid around €170 million last week to acquire Mr Desmond's 21.5 per cent.

Under the Irish Takeover Panel's substantial acquisition rules, Mr Carroll is prohibited from buying further shares in the food company for five days.

Oil drops over $1 per barrel

Oil dropped more than $1 to $73 a barrel yesterday, extending the previous session's fall from a record high due to expectations of progress in talks this week on Iran's nuclear program.

Prices in New York hit a record high of $75.78 on Friday before easing later in the day on profit taking.

US crude futures fell $1.04 to $73.05 a barrel. London Brent crude was down $1.25 to $72.26, having touched a record peak of $75.09 on Friday.

Finevera appoints chairman

Finevera, the Irish alternative energy company, has appointed John Orange, a former executive at BP, as non-executive chairman.

Mr Orange, who is currently senior independent director of Premier Oil, will take up the position immediately.

Tullow Oil ends Uganda drill

Exploration group Tullow Oil yesterday announced the completion of provisional drilling at its Waraga-1 well in Uganda and said activities at the site were now suspended, pending potential future production.

In a statement issued by Tullow's partner in the venture, Hardman Resources, the two groups said the final results from drilling in the uppermost zones of the well were ahead of initial forecasts. The area has the potential to produce as much as 3,650 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with initial forecasts of 2,100 boepd, they said.

In total, the test results from the whole site show the well has the potential to produce 12,050 boepd.

New director for Anglo Irish Bank

Anglo Irish Bank said that Mr Pat Whelan, its head of group risk and operations, has joined the board of the bank as an executive director.

Diamond group's Botswana success

African Diamonds, the Dr John Telling-led exploration group listed on London's Aim market, said yesterday the quality of the stones found at one of its sites in Botswana meant it had the potential to be at the top end of the world's diamond discoveries.

An assessment by De Beers' Diamond Trading Company valued the 10,486 diamonds recovered from the AK6 phase of drilling at an average price of $150 a carat, significantly more than the initial forecast of $138 per carat.

African Diamonds is now compiling a preliminary economic model of the site, which should be complete by the end of September.

Ovoca strikes gold in Russia

Ovoca Gold said yesterday that samples from its Oleninskoye deposit in Russia showed 13.7 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of rock. The samples were taken from three boreholes.