Little Things

THIS WEEK marked the 10th anniversary of the sale of Denis O’Brien’s Esat Telecom to Britain’s BT and many of the old gang met up in the Shelbourne Hotel to toast the good old days. O’Brien, was in New York, having spent a couple of days with Digicel in Haiti.

The knees-up was to have been held in the Residence private members’ club on St Stephen’s Green but was switched after Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the High Court tore strips off the club’s owners, Christian and Simon Stokes.

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Corporate finance executive Paul Connolly, an associate of Denis O’Brien, has renamed his company CCF.

Connolly Corporate Finance made the change just before Christmas, according to latest company filings.

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Former Irish Life & Permanent boss Denis Casey, who was forced to step down after the revelation of deposit transfers to Anglo Irish Bank, is putting his spare time to use by studying law, with a view to possibly becoming a barrister.

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Having last week reduced its flights from Dublin to Heathrow and cut its crew base here, British airline BMI is now axing its business-class cabin at the front of the aircraft.

From January 27th, all flights from Ireland (it also flies from Belfast) to Heathrow will “be operated on a single-cabin economy-only aircraft”.

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Merrion Stockbrokers analyst John Mattimoe (left) is moving to Appian Asset Management as head of investment. Mattimoe has spent 13 years in stockbroking with Merrion and, before that, NCB.

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Paul Geaney, son of the late former Elan chief, Donal Geaney, is to head up the US base of Avolon, Dómhnal Slattery’s new aircraft leasing business.

Geaney led the New York office of Slattery’s Claret Capital before the credit crunch hit the business.