Today's stories in brief
Energia wins Garda power contract
Energia, the electricity supply arm of Viridian, has won a contract to supply power to 150 Garda stations throughout the State.
The contract was awarded under a competitive tendering process by the Department of Finance and it is valued at about €1.7 million. Energia has a 25 per cent share of the corporate electricity market. It already has contracts with local authorities, health boards and other public sector organisations.
Shell offers €1.7bn for oil sands firm
Royal Dutch Shell's Canadian unit yesterday unveiled a 2.4 billion Canadian dollar (€1.7 billion) cash offer for BlackRock Ventures, its latest move in a multi-billion dollar bet on Canada's oil sands.
Shell Canada, 78 per cent owned by Shell, offered C$24 per share for the small Canadian oil sands producer, a 27 per cent premium over Friday's closing price of $18.88. The board of BlackRock unanimously approved the transaction and will recommend it to shareholders.
"This acquisition will augment our overall oil sands portfolio," said Clive Mather, president and chief executive of Shell Canada.
"It will add 12,000-14,000 barrels per day of heavy oil production and provide Shell Canada with access to significant additional resources." - (Financial Times service)
ESB seeks rise in connection charge
The ESB is proposing to increase the charge for new houses to connect to the electricity distribution system.
The company has asked for approval from the energy regulator to increase the domestic charge by 67 per cent to €1,710. This is for houses in estates and the cost is usually absorbed by the builder and passed on to the buyer.
The connection charges for business, the ESB is proposing, should increase by 27 per cent.
The company has requested that one-off houses pay 27 per cent extra. The energy regulator Tom Reeves has yet to give his approval to the increases.
REO exchanges land sale contracts
Real Estate Opportunties (REO) has agreed a land sale that should lift its net asset value per share by seven pence sterling from the end-2005 figure.
The property company, which is 57 per cent owned by John Ronan and Richard Barrett of Treasury Holdings, said it could not identify the site for commercial reasons, but details would be disclosed in "due course".
Contracts have been exchanged for the disposal of the land, which is held in a subsidiary of REO, for cash. The transaction is scheduled for completion on June 16th.
Toyota gets closer to overtaking GM
When Toyota unveils its annual results tomorrow, it will announce yet another year of record profitability and sales.
Next year, it will almost certainly overtake General Motors as the world's biggest vehicle manufacturer.
Toyota's seemingly unstoppable march in the US has come at the expense of GM and Ford, which are busy restructuring their North American operations in an effort to return to profitability.
Toyota's share of the US light-vehicle market climbed to 15.2 per cent in April, putting it slightly ahead of Chrysler.
The combined share of GM and Ford shrank to 41.3 per cent. A decade ago it was close to 60 per cent. - (Financial Times service)
