This week
Riverdeep becomes the first Irish company to be listed on the Nasdaq and ISEQ; the hotel industry pins hopes on the 1990s being a good decade; Milk prices slashed; NCB and Davy slash forecasts for BOI.
10 years ago
Scottish Radio Holdings is in negotiations to buy tabloid newspaper Ireland on Sunday. Although no price tag has been confirmed, it is implied the deal will value the newspaper at £6m.
Restaurant chain Bewleys is taking the channel tunnel authorities, Eurotunnel, to court to claim damages for losses suffered when the UK-French consortium allegedly terminated without warning a contract with Bewleys to establish restaurants at Folkstone and Calais.
Riverdeep is the first Irish company to achieve a dual listing on the Nasdaq and Iseq, with a watershed year predicted for Irish tech firms going public.
Jill Kerby reports that interest rates are beginning to rise. As overseas entrants such as Northern Rock begin to shake up the market, the range of deposit account products begins to grow. Bank of Scotland promise that its mortgage account will never exceed the ECB by more than 1.5% and that the 5.25% rate is available on sums as low as £5,000.
20 years ago
Dublin Zoo owners held an EGM to discuss its survival and the hope of securing fresh funding. Up to 500 members of the Royal Zoological Society protested against bad housekeeping and the proposal to close the zoo on March 19th unless stop-gap funding of £100,000 could be raised.
The hotel industry, in the middle of a building boom, is gambling that the 1990s will be very different from the 1980s as figures from the Irish Hotel Federation show that from 1979 to 1988, the bed-occupancy rate was only 40%, hardly enough to justify the spate of new investment in hotel projects.
While analysts have been busy cutting back their profit forecasts for Bank of Ireland for the year end 1990, one should not assume that AIB will not spring a few surprises.
Both NCB and Davy slashed its forecast for BOI from £182.5m to £148.5m. Analysts ignored AIB's Third World Lending with exposure at $179m compared with BOI's $20m.
30 years ago
The county's farmers put out all the stops in their counter-attack on the Gundelach price package and particularly on the levy on milk. However, commentators suggest that a milk levy could prove a positive boost to dairy production.
The American Express card comes in for criticism. The adverts suggest it offers financial freedom, convenience and security, however Irish businessmen complain about the "computer" that cannot be argued with and an inability for the Irish office to deal with many problems. Having to pay in sterling rather than Irish punts, also angers users.
When Michael Kennedy rose in the Dáil to present his first Budget he knew that no matter what Fine Gael or Labour said he would have the full backing of his backbench deputies, not because they liked what they heard but because Charles Haughey warned them there would be serious consequence if there was any show of dissidence.
40 years ago
The Irish male fashion scene is in the spotlight amid reports that Irishmen are sloppy dressers. The menswear industry has strong potential to be a growth sector. With exports rising and home demand outstripping supply, indications suggest it's a sector to watch.
Rationalisation within the builders' providers industry took on a new twist with the announcement that O'Flaherty Holdings sold Monsell Mitchell to Thomas Tilling, the Pretty Polly parent company, for £787,500.
Eight Irish firms got together to form a new company, the Irish-American Candy Corporation which is planning a combined marketing assault on the lucrative US confectionary market, which is estimated to be worth £840m a year.
Following a jump of 11% in pre-tax profits for Dock Milling, the privately owned flour mill, it is regrettable that shares are not quoted on the open market as the latest net equity backing is as good as £12 per share.
