Article Category: Moneybags

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 »

No quick cure for Amryt Pharma investors

June 17, 2016

IN A complete shift of gear, Cathal Friel has turned Fastnet Oil & Gas into Amryt Pharmaceuticals. At first sight, moving from a... Read more »

PTSB launches ‘Explore Account’

June 17, 2016

IN MAY last year the company floated off 25% of Permanent TSB on the Irish Stock Exchange and, in the process, raised €500m... Read more »

Pricey Grafton shares have potential

June 1, 2016

OVER THE last 40 years, Mike Chadwick built up one of the most successful builders’ merchants businesses in Europe. Grafton Group is now... Read more »

Aminex shares now good for a gamble

June 1, 2016

WITH THE much larger and better resourced Petroceltic going down the tubes two months ago, the much smaller Irish exploration company, Aminex, now... Read more »

Paddy Power Betfair shares on very high rating

May 18, 2016

PADDY POWER has been a phenomenally successful business and, following the merger with Betfair, it is in a commanding position in the lucrative... Read more »

Hostelworld’s success could attract competition

May 18, 2016

IT IS hard to believe that the tiny online youth hostel booking business which IT geek Ray Nolan and Tom Kennedy – a... Read more »

Vultures profit from Nama strategy

May 5, 2016

WITH Nama about to flog off two further Irish portfolios – Project Emerald and Project Ruby, with a nominal value of €4.7bn –... Read more »