Thornton's restaurant shows slight loss for last year

BRIEFS:One of the country's most exclusive restaurants, the Michelin-starred Thornton's, owned by chef Kevin Thornton, dipped into the red last year.

The abridged accounts just filed to the Companies Office by Conted Ltd, trading as Thorntons Restaurant, they show that the 80-seater restaurant recorded an after-tax loss of €1,595 to the end of August last year after two years of recording profits.

The firm's balance sheet showed accumulated losses of €73,429 at the end of August last and in a note attached to the accounts, directors Mr Thornton and his wife Muriel state they have "considered the uncertainty in the current economic and financial environment and are confident that the company will be in a position to trade through these difficult trading circumstances and continue to take appropriate steps to manage its business activities in this environment".

The note says "the shareholders have indicated their willingness to continue to provide continued financial support".

The minor loss last year follows profits of €19,234 recorded in 2010 and €37,990 recorded in 2009.

Teva reports 19% growth worldwide

Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals has reported a 19 per cent increase in global second quarter revenues compared to the same period last year. Global sales revenue from Teva’s generics and branded medicines was $5 billion (€4.05 billion), up from $4.2 billion in Q2 2011.

Earnings excluding some costs climbed to $1.1 billion, or $1.28 a share, from $984 million, or $1.10, a year earlier, the Israel-based company said. The company reaffirmed that it was on track to achieve further growth in 2012.

The company, which specialises in the development, production and marketing of generic and branded pharmaceuticals, employs almost 500 people at facilities in Waterford and Dundalk.

It manufactures and develops a range of respiratory products, such as inhalers, for supply to the US and other global markets at its Waterford plant.

“Here in Ireland and globally, Teva is taking market share and reinvesting for growth,” Teva general manager Sandra Gannon said yesterday. “The demand for more affordable medicines from healthcare professionals is growing.”

- PAMELA NEWENHAM

IBRC names two more to board

State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the former Anglo Irish Bank, has appointed to its board two new non-executives, career banker Maurice Horan and accountant Alan Ridgway.

This brings the number of IBRC board members to 10.

Mr Horan, of Glin, Co Limerick, works as a corporate finance consultant.

He is a former chief restructuring officer of Bank Alkhair and has also held senior positions at Arab National Bank in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Ridgway, from Co Cork, works as a consultant to asset manager Reviva Capital advising on the recovery and work-out of distressed loans.

He is a former deputy managing director at Luxembourg-based Ikano Fund Management and previously worked at Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken and accountancy firm Deloitte.

IBRC chairman Alan Dukes said the two new directors brought “a wealth of international financial experience, particularly in the areas of restructuring”.

Barclays appoints City veteran as next chairman after Libor resignations

Barclays has moved to settle the governance vacuum at the bank following the mass resignations that accompanied its indictment by regulators over the Libor lending rate scandal, appointing City grandee Sir David Walker as its next chairman.

Sir David, who will join the board in September and succeed the outgoing chairman, Marcus Agius, in November, is a corporate governance expert who has been outspoken in his criticism of high banker pay.

“My immediate priority . . . will be the appointment of a new chief executive,” Sir David said.

Bob Diamond resigned as chief executive with immediate effect last month within days of the bank paying £290 million to US and British regulators to settle charges it manipulated Libor rates over a four-year period. Mr Agius also resigned but has stayed on to help find a replacement for Mr Diamond.

Aside from the task of finding a new chief executive, Sir David is expected to waste little time in clearing out the Barclays board, widely criticised for allowing a culture to persist in which Mr Diamond’s strategies went unchallenged.

Sir David will also give priority to the bank’s much criticised pay structure as part of an overhaul of the bank’s “culture”.

The new chairman is “not friendly towards short-term bonuses”, one person close to him said.

An independent review of the bank’s culture, commissioned from veteran lawyer Anthony Salz last month, will be key to his work to reform the bank.

Sir David was formerly chairman of the predecessor organisation of the Financial Services Authority and later chairman of Morgan Stanley International. He recently jointly led the independent review of the report that the FSA produced into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland.

He will be paid £750,000, on a par with Mr Agius, with £100,000 of the total funded in Barclays shares. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012