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Dialing down Christmas; energy firm profits drop; and beware that midlife career change

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Faltering consumer sentiment points to a more muted but not cancelled Christmas celebrations. Photograph: iStock

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Mon Nov 21 2022 - 06:34

Christmas will be less of a blowout this year, according to more than six in 10 consumers but it will be more a case of “careful rather than cancelled”, according to the latest Irish League of Credit Unions Consumer Sentiment survey. Consumers are less confident than in October, writes Laura Slattery, but more upbeat than in September which will be give retailers some confidence.

Figures from PrepayPower show that its profit fell 40 per cent last year. The group blamed lower margins as wholesale energy costs started surging as well as reduced input from renewables. PrepayPower, which announced three price rises for electricity last year and another four so far in 2022, still paid a €19 million dividend to shareholders.

With Black Friday shopping already under way even though the big day falls on Friday of this week, Fraudsmart is warning online shoppers to be careful after €45 million was lost to fraud in the second half of last year. The warning comes as AIB reports that Irish shoppers spent close to €26m on the big day last year. Ian Curran reports.

Away from festive shopping, listed Irish businesses have made significant progress at achieving gender balance on their boards, according to the latest annual report of the Balance for Better Business Review Group – exceeding the EU average for the first time. However, writes Ciara O’Brien, the report noted that more focus was needed to get women into senior executive leadership roles in Irish business.

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Companies will also be cheered by the results of a new PwC survey that show Ireland to be the seventh most attractive location in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for a private business to thrive, up from 14th last time around out of 33 countries surveyed.

In his column, Eoin Burke-Kennedy examines a US report that pencils in corporate tax receipts of €26 billion for Ireland this year, way ahead of the €22 billion the current most optimistic domestic assessments suggest. But rather than tax loopholes and IP transfers, the US reports suggest the corporation tax boom is simply down to increased profitability at top US firms that have bases here.

With Pilita Clark occupied with Cop27, Emma Jacobs fills in on World of Work and throws some cold water on the concept of radical midlife career change – unless you have the talent for such a switch and the financial resources of a high-earning partner or a healthy savings account to back you up.

In our Opinion slot, Insurance Ireland’s Moyagh Murdock insists that insurance market reforms are paying dividends for consumers, at least on the motor policy side of things. Liability and commercial property remain a challenge, she admits, but argues that continues reform will deliver there too.

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