Net interests boost Fyffes, Independent

This millennium has barely begun and already the business pages have been filled with news of several major corporate deals at home and abroad.

The latest mega-merger was the long awaited announcement that Glaxo-Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham are to merge creating the world's largest pharmaceutical company.

Irish interest in corporate deals has been sustained with the takeover of CyberTrust Solutions of the US by Baltimore Technologies. This has generated a further strong rise in Baltimore's share price.

For many Irish private investors these deals make interesting reading but have only a limited impact on their portfolios. It is developments in the long-established quoted companies that have the more significant impact. So far this year the overall ISEQ index has only risen marginally. However, there have been some significant share price moves by some of the market's participants. While it is somewhat premature to draw any conclusions from the early trends in the market, the performance of the selection of shares shown in the table below does make for interesting reading.

Two of the biggest winners in the early weeks of the year have been Fyffes and Independent News and Media. After several years in the doldrums both of these shares began to perform during 1999 and their strong opening to 2000 marks an acceleration in upward trends which were already established.

In the case of both companies, their improved stock market performance undoubtedly reflects the fact that their core businesses have made solid progress in recent years.

However, the exceptionally strong rises in both share prices in recent weeks have one thing in common. This is the announcement from both companies of initiatives to deepen their respective involvement in the e-commerce world.

Fyffes has established an Internet company, with a number of partners, which is targeting the global fruit distribution market. Independent News and Media is planning to get a separate stock market quote for some of its Internet-related businesses and has announced that Dr Tony O'Reilly will be taking a much more active involvement in the strategic direction of the company.

With valuations of stock-market quoted Internet and e-commerce business soaring, it is likely that investors will watch the progress of both companies' Internet businesses very closely.

Elsewhere in the market some of the long-established industrial stocks such as Smurfit and Jury Doyles got off to a good start and are expected to produce steady returns during 2000. Despite the flurry of activity in the telecoms sector, Eircom has continued to disappoint and its share price is unchanged so far this year.

In sharp contrast, the financial shares have begun 2000 where they left off in 1999 with further share-price declines. AIB has fallen by 5 per cent as banking and insurance stocks continue to be weighed down by worries over the impact of increased competition.

Furthermore, investors are concerned about the threat posed by the Internet and telephone banking on the established companies. This perceived threat is compounded by a feeling that the Irish financial institutions have yet to formulate a strategy on how to embrace the new technologies.

Whether the trends of recent weeks will continue over the remainder of the year is clearly a subject for much debate, but on the basis of the first weeks of 2000, the year is shaping up to be a very interesting one from an investment viewpoint.