Article Category: Moneybags

AIB flotation plan does not add up

March 23, 2017

WITH FINANCE minister Michael Noonan preparing to sell-off 25% of AIB and, as a taster, preparing to pay out a dividend of €250m,... Read more »

Aer Lingus bargain helps IAG shares soar

March 23, 2017

THERE WAS considerable surprise in the Irish media when Willie Walsh announced IAG group’s results for 2016 and confirmed that Aer Lingus had... Read more »

DCC shareholders sitting pretty but party is now over

March 9, 2017

TOMMY BREEN’S €270m acquisition of Esso’s retail petrol network in Norway last month and, even more so, last week’s decision to sell off... Read more »

UDG’s accounting manoeuvres

March 9, 2017

OVER THE past 16 years, Liam Fitzgerald dramatically transformed United Drug from being the biggest Irish wholesale drug and distribution company supplying most... Read more »

Aidan Heavey’s costly legacy at Tullow Oil

February 23, 2017

THIS APRIL, after Tullow Oil’s annual meeting, Aidan Heavey will officially step down after 30 years as chief executive and hand over to... Read more »

Mick O’Leary’s over expansion at Ryanair

February 23, 2017

IT LOOKS like Mick O’Leary is up to his old tricks again with predictable turbulence for his shareholders. The business model that works... Read more »

Aryzta is now a buy-out target

February 9, 2017

OWEN KILLIAN in Aryzta has been hit by a perfect storm and is under particular pressure from his new largest shareholder, Causeway Capital... Read more »

Abbey shareholders increasingly isolated

February 9, 2017

HAVING GAINED control of the Abbey house building group with the blessing of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) authorities, Charlie Gallagher has now... Read more »

Paddy Coveney rolls the dice at Greencore

January 25, 2017

THERE ARE some troubling aspects to Greencore’s $751m (€700m) acquisition of the American Peacock Foods convenience food group. It is not clear if... Read more »

First Derivatives’ sky-high share rating

January 25, 2017

ONE OF Ireland’s more impressive but little reported success stories is the fast growing financial software house, First Derivatives (FD), set up by... Read more »

Fyffes shareholders betting on a takeover battle

January 12, 2017

THERE ARE peculiar aspects to the €751m (€2.23 a share) recommended takeover of Fyffes by the giant E12bn capitalised Japanese Sumitomo group. While... Read more »

Venn Life Sciences profit prescription

January 12, 2017

FROM 1996 to 2004, Tony Richardson ran Alltracel, the small Irish pharmaceutical company that specialised in the development and marketing of an innovative... Read more »

Market cools as INM soap opera turns ugly

December 14, 2016

THERE IS a certain logic to INM diversifying into digital media by acquiring the Newstalk radio station from the Communicorp Group. Both are... Read more »

Opaque figures make it hard for Origin investors

December 14, 2016

LAST YEAR was a challenging one for Tom O’Mahony’s Origin Enterprises group. It wasn’t just that trading profits of €74m fell back to... Read more »

Bloodstock blues for Goffs

December 1, 2016

THIS YEAR is the 150th anniversary of Robert J Goff & Co, the Irish bloodstock auctioneer founded in 1866 by the Myerscough family.... Read more »

Deadline approaching for ‘The Irish Times’

December 1, 2016

GIVEN THAT the publisher of The Irish Times – The Irish Times Ltd (ITL) – is owned by a trust, it is not... Read more »

Carroll and Heraty’s focus unlikely to boost CPL share price

November 3, 2016

PAUL CARROLL and his wife, Anne Heraty, run the successful 26-year-old Irish CPL Resources job agency and, had they adopted a less cautious... Read more »

Nama damned by Project Eagle report

November 3, 2016

THE SPECIAL report of Seamus McCarthy, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), on Nama’s sale of its Northern Ireland portfolio – Project Eagle –... Read more »

Smurfit Kappa shares lag market average

October 20, 2016

GARY McGANN retired as CEO of the Smurfit Kappa group at the end of August last year after 17 years. Tony Smurfit is... Read more »

McCann property company has some value

October 20, 2016

THE PROPERTY arm of Fyffes – Balmoral International Land (BIL) – was launched on the Dublin Stock Exchange under the name Blackrock International... Read more »

Smurfit dynasty goes out with a whimper

October 5, 2016

WHEN DERMOT Smurfit (younger brother of Mick), originally bought the Finnish Savon Sellu paper mill in 2005, at the age of 61, it... Read more »

Fyffes strange plunge into mushrooms

October 5, 2016

LAST YEAR Fyffes enjoyed a good year’s trading with revenue up 12% to €1.2bn and operating profits up a very healthy 37% to... Read more »

Dermot Smurfit’s high stakes gamble with GAN

September 21, 2016

DERMOT STOPFORD SMURFIT – the 41-year-old nephew of Mick Smurfit – invested and took management control of the gaming software development house, Game... Read more »

Profitable Kingspan needs to avoid distractions

September 21, 2016

KINGSPAN has had a fantastic record over the last five years and is now one of a handful of Irish companies playing a... Read more »

Ormonde Mining’s heavy metal fatigue

September 7, 2016

ORMONDE MINING is an unusual entity, particularly in the resource sector. Its business is developing a tungsten mine in western Spain, a process... Read more »

Cheap Abbey shares stuck in bargain basement

September 7, 2016

THE WAY Charlie Gallagher runs the Abbey house building operation is a poor reflection on Deirdre Somers’s regulation team at the Irish Stock... Read more »

Muldoon’s clean sweep puts FBD on course

August 24, 2016

FIONA MULDOON has really shaken up the FBD Holdings insurance group. It had previously struggled to expand away from its farmer customer base,... Read more »

Mick Carvill survives Kenmare restructuring

August 24, 2016

MICK CARVILL has not had a good record and possibly the most imprudent move he ever made was to decide in 2010, at... Read more »

What’s next for Doyle hotels?

August 10, 2016

PV Doyle’s legacy is a pale image of its past. Instead of dominating the Dublin hotel market as it did 20 years ago... Read more »

Shareholders hit by Aminex dilution

August 10, 2016

THE €25m placing confirmed on August 2 last at an EGM was a real shock for Aminex shareholders. Unlike the desperate position Providence... Read more »

More pain at Providence Resources

July 28, 2016

THE SHAREHOLDERS in Providence Resources had much to be annoyed about last year when a share placing caused significant damage to their investment.... Read more »

Moguls taking on Denis O’Brien

July 28, 2016

IT IS now much clearer what strategy was behind Eir’s decision to buy Setanta Sport. It was not just the building up of... Read more »

Draper Esprit’s potential comes with health warning

July 15, 2016

BOTH Jim Flavin’s DCC and Shane Reihill’s Trinity Venture Capital (TVC) floated on the Stock Exchange as venture capital vehicles but failed to... Read more »

Polymetal stake should boost Ovoca

July 15, 2016

THE BIGGEST challenges for shareholders in Ovoca Gold have been the company’s changing nature and the disjoint between its current dominant Russian shareholders... Read more »