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The Smurfits boost their investment in Kirby’s Tixserve

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Bluey has become a global phenomenon. Photograph: David Parry/PA Media Assignments/PA Wire

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Peter Flanagan
Tue Apr 23 2024 - 06:28

Several members of the Smurfit family have topped up their investment in Tixserve, a digital ticketing company run by Patrick Kirby. As Barry J Whyte reports, recent filings show that former Smurfit Kappa chief executive Michael Smurfit, his son Michael Smurfit junior, and his brother Dermot Smurfit, and collectively put in €190,000. Barry J Whyte has read those filings.

The cost of agricultural land in the Republic is forecast to rise by 6 per cent on average this year as milk prices recover from a slump last year and on the back of “continuing strong demand from farmers and investors,” according to a new report from Teagasc and the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

In her column, Laura Slattery looks at the phenomenon that is Bluey, and points out what the Australian cartoon and Taylor Swift may have in common.

Max Benjamin, the family-owned Irish maker of candles and fragrances is planning to launch its products into the United States later this year. Ciaran Hancock reports.

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In Your Money, Fiona Reddan highlights the steps you need to take now to start securing your pension, while Dominic Coyle answers questions on how to manage a father’s will as he prepares to remarry. Dominic also responds to an investor worried their holding in AIB is so small the lender won’t buy it out under its proposal to do just that with other shareholders.

Irish and UK-based biopharmaceutical company SynOx Therapeutics has raised $75 million (€60.7 million) in a new round of funding round to help further the development of a new treatment for a debilitating chronic condition known as Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumour. Ciara O’Brien has the story.

Cantillon looks ahead to today’s Stability Programme Update to be published by the Department of Finance this afternoon – a key indicator of the fiscal headroom the Government may have at the Budget, while also asking why the E in ESG appears to be rapidly going out of fashion even as the world burns.

The High Court is being asked to overturn a decision permitting Aer Lingus to appeal over Ryanair’s plans for a €40 million aircraft maintenance hangar at Dublin Airport. Ellen O’Riordan was in court.

The High Court has been asked to approve the amalgamation of the two professional bodies for accountants. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) of Ireland applied for and was granted permission on Monday to enter into the court’s fast-rack commercial division its application for approval for a scheme of arrangement which will see its amalgamation with the larger Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI).

The Court of Appeal has cut short a hearing of solicitor Ammi Burke’s appeal against the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and will base its decision on the parties’ written submissions. The judges adopted this approach amid Ms Burke’s continued protestations over their earlier rejection of her application asking the president of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice George Birmingham, to recuse himself from hearing her appeal. Ellen O’Riordan has the latest.

Wholesale electricity prices have fallen by more than 70 per cent since the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. As Eoin reports, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show that while wholesale electricity prices rose by 2.4 per cent month-on-month in March this year they were 40.3 per cent lower than March last year and 70.4 per cent lower than March 2022.

AIB Group has increased the payment for eligible mortgage customers who switch to AIB, EBS or Haven to €3,000. The payment, up from €2,000 previously, is to help cover the costs associated with switching, and aims to encourage switching for mortgage customers, particularly those whose fixed-rate mortgages are coming to an end. Colin Gleeson reports.

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