A round up of today's other stories in brief
Bupa allowed to challenge Harney ruling
Health insurance company Bupa yesterday secured leave from the High Court to challenge the decision last month of the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to commence the risk equalisation scheme, writes Mary Carolan.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said he would grant leave to Bupa to bring this latest judicial review challenge to decisions of the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) and the Minister, made respectively in October and December last, and he returned the matter for mention to February 6th.
Meanwhile, separate and wider proceedings in which Bupa is disputing the legality of the risk equalisation scheme itself are set to go ahead next week and are expected to last some time.
Bupa claims introduction of the scheme would cost it some €30 million and put it out of business.
Opec pledges to keep output up
Opec oil ministers gave strong support to keeping output near a 25-year high yesterday as worries over supplies from Iran, Nigeria and energy powerhouse Russia outweighed forecasts for lower demand in spring.
The group, which pumps over a third of the world's oil, meets today to plan production for the next few months. The result looked a foregone conclusion with oil above $67 a barrel, within sight of August's $70.85 record high. - (Reuters)
B of I issue to raise €330m
Bank of Ireland is to raise $400 million (€330 million) of Tier One capital through the issue of fixed/floating rate perpetual preferred securities.
The bank, which last week announced plans to raise $800 million, said the deal was part of its "normal capital management process".
However, analysts noted that there had been some concern among investors of late in regard to the bank's capital and the raising of around €1 billion in all should help to address that.
Exxon makes $10bn profit
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, yesterday reported a quarterly profit of more than $10 billion (€8.3 billion), capping a record year dominated by a surge oil and gas prices.
The results pushed up Exxon's profit for the year to a staggering $36.13 billion - bigger than the economies of 125 of the 184 countries ranked by the World Bank. Profit was up 42 per cent from the record results of 2004. - (Reuters)
RBoS takes stake in Synergen plant
Royal Bank of Scotland's power division has taken a 30 per cent share in the Synergen power plant in Ringsend, Co Dublin.
The stake was sold to RBS Power investments by Statoil. The other shareholder in the gas-fired plant, with 70 per cent, is the ESB. Statoil said it was selling its minority stake because it was streamlining its business activities.
Statoil will continue to supply gas to Synergen for the Ringsend power plant under a long-term agreement. Market sources believe the stake could be worth up to €70 million.
Former Enron executives on trial
Four years after the fall of Enron, the US government yesterday put the company's former chief executives on trial.
Ken Lay (63) and Jeff Skilling (52) sat at separate tables, each with his own team of lawyers, facing Sim Lake, the Federal court judge who will ultimately decide their punishment should the men be convicted. - (Financial Times service)
