If I was writing for the glitzy, glamorous travel section of The Irish Times rather than the - let's face it - more prosaic area of the business section, I'd be able to wax lyrical about how surprisingly lovely Sicily is. I'd expected a fairly arid, less than densely populated island off the toe end of Italy, but it turned out to be lush, busy and very, very stylish. The Sicilians, understandably, consider themselves as entirely different to the Italians. But the buildings and the people bear the hallmark of elegance that the Italians always manage to produce.
As we walked along the main street in Taormina, the first shop we encountered was the usual tacky souvenir emporium, selling quite awful figurines made out of lava rock. These are something that you wouldn't give your worst enemy. In fact, they are so terrible that they'll probably appear in the style section of the newspaper fairly soon as being the in thing in kitsch. However, once past the souvenir shop I was in complete paradise. Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Mara, Armani and Versace are all ably represented. Unfortunately, due to a slight miscalculation on my part, the credit card didn't get quite the going over that it was entitled to. Still, I came home with a few labels all the same . . .
And as for the cappuccino prices. Well, the most expensive cost £2.03 and that was in the tourist-trap, pavement cafe overlooking the bay, the street artists and the plaza. The cheapest was 81p in the much more amiable pension next door to our hotel. The ratio of froth to coffee was excellent, as was the chocolate sprinkling on top, and the coffee itself was nicely geared to get the red corpuscles up and running. So I'm afraid that £2.70 as charged in some emporia in the environs of the IFSC is a complete rip-off and should be shunned by Dublin cappuccino drinkers.
The biggest industry in Italy, though, must surely be the phone industry. Particularly the mobile phone industry. There were lots of Italians on holiday in Sicily and I think they were all phoning home all the time. At the same time. There were mobile phone conversations going on while they walked the streets, took the cable car, sat on the beach or whizzed off on their Vespas. It's no wonder that every second headline about the phone industry mentions one of the Italian companies - Telecom Italia, Tecnost, Olivetti et al.
Actually all of these companies are interlinked. Tecnost owns 52 per cent of Telecom Italia voting shares, as it was used by Olivetti when it launched a hostile bid for Telecom Italia in February. Ultimately, Tecnost and Telecom Italia are expected to merge. This means that people who want to buy Telecom Italia are using Tecnost as a back door entry vehicle. Tecnost shares have averaged around €2.72 (£2.14) over the past few months, although they did spike up to €7.07 back in May. Meanwhile Telecom Italia's average price has been €9.69 with a high back in July of €11.20.
Telecom shares are, of course, hot news in Ireland at the moment with Eircom's recent price plunge the subject of heated discussion in the media - which seems intent on whipping up a frenzy on behalf of the small shareholder who didn't take the profit. If you borrowed the money and didn't take the profit straight away it wasn't exactly a great call, but people who didn't borrow shouldn't be jumping off the window ledge just yet. I read an article recently which said that nobody was warned about the possible downside in telecom shares. Oh come on!
Anyway, long-term investors are supposed to put these downtrades out of your mind but that's always easier said than done! My straw poll of holders shows a bunch of people less flustered than the newspapers would want to believe. They're taking the rough with the smooth and riding out the storm for some time yet although underperforming the market is not exactly what they had in mind when they picked on a stock in a high growth sector.
Actually, the Irish equity market has been in a bit of a depression over the last few weeks with fund managers apparently unwilling to add to their holdings even when prices have fallen back. In the US, private investors have piled in when markets are down, but it's still not the Irish way. And, with the last quarter of the year beckoning, lots of people are expecting less liquid market conditions in the days ahead.
And those days have been so gloomy! Each morning on holiday I woke up to bright, cloudless skies. It's difficult to cope with fumbling around in the dark for the tights again. Mind you, it wasn't always bright in Sicily as there was a depression the size of a small equity market hanging around the Med while we were there and we were subject to the occasional thunderstorm. There was a thunderstorm the day of our departure too and we were treated to a display of lightening that had all but the most hardened flyer wondering if we weren't being a bit optimistic in expecting to get home on time. But full marks to Aer Lingus for (and it's a first for me) being early on both legs of the flight!
Half marks to them for their new traveller-packs on their transatlantic flights. You remember my Atlantic-hopping, female friend who makes regular trips to the US and who has yet to receive her "ladies" travelling pack? Well Aer Lingus has moved from the specific to the general, it appears, and now offers a unisex version to all transatlantic travellers. This includes "shaving gel for men and women". I'm not sure exactly what this is saying about the women who fly to the US on business, but I have to say that the idea of shaving any of the parts of the female anatomy in a tiny cubicle at 30,000 feet makes my eyes water. A warm towel, some eye-drops, toothpaste and moisturiser would be enough. Honestly.
Sheila O'Flanagan is a fixed- income specialist at NCB
