InShort

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Wyeth to set up new site for research

Pharmaceutical group Wyeth will open a new research facility in Dublin, creating 12 jobs focused on the discovery of new drugs.

Announcing the development yesterday, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, described it as a significant endorsement of Ireland as a location for drug discovery research. The company will be located at the Conway Institute in University College Dublin.

KPMG sees 16.7% revenue increase

KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, said yesterday its annual revenues rose 16.7 per cent to $15.7 billion (€13.2 billion) in the year to end-September. "We benefited from increased economic activity and increased regulatory requirements placed on clients, as did the profession as a whole," Mike Rake, chairman of KPMG International, said.

Revenues in KPMG's Americas region and Asia Pacific region each rose 15 per cent to $5.67 billion and $1.92 billion respectively. Europe, Middle East and Africa revenues rose 18.4 per cent to $8.10 billion. - (Reuters)

Tokyo exchange chief apologises

The head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange has fallen on his sword to take responsibility for a huge $333-million (€281 billion) trading blunder that has badly damaged confidence in Asia's largest stock market, writes David McHugh in Tokyo.

Takuo Tsurushima and two other executives yesterday apologised to investors for the "confusion" caused earlier this month when the exchange's trading system failed to block a sell order for 610,000 shares at 1 yen apiece.

The fiasco was caused by a keyboard error by an employee of Mizuho Securities, who intended to sell one share in manpower recruitment firm J-Com for 610,000 yen.

Wholesale prices show sharp rise

Wholesale price inflation rose sharply in November due to strong upward price movements in the cost of chemicals products. According to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), annual inflation in wholesale prices rose dramatically to 3.5 per cent in November, compared with 0.9 per cent in October.

Regulator warns of illegal US firm

The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority has issued a warning notice on Woods & Sheldon, a US-based company that has been offering unauthorised investment services in the Republic. The notice is published today in Irish daily newspapers under the terms of the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995.

The regulator's consumer director, Mary O'Dea, advised consumers who received unsolicited approaches from firms to check with the regulator that they are authorised to sell investment services by ringing 1890 200 469.

British company loses CIÉ contract

Shares in the UK outdoor advertising company Maiden plummeted yesterday after it failed to seal a major new deal with CIÉ worth up to €15 million.

The contract for outdoor advertising on all CIÉ sites was awarded on a provisional basis to Maiden, but final negotiations to seal the deal broke down. It is understood Maiden was asked to put up a sum of money to guarantee it would fufill the contract, but it was unable to fulfill this financial commitment.