Other finance stories in brief

Russia and EU agree on beef imports

A formal agreement preventing the imposition of a ban on EU beef into Russia from January 1st will be signed in Berlin on January 18th, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.

On Tuesday an agreement in principle had been hammered out in Moscow between the Russian agriculture minister Alexi Gordeyev and the EU health commissioner, Markos Kyprianou.

He had assured the Russians on the health standards which were being applied by the Union on Bulgarian and Romanian meat plants who join the Union on January 1st.

106% mobile penetration rate

There are now almost 4.5 million active mobile subscriptions in Ireland - a penetration rate of 106 per cent, according to ComReg's quarterly report for July- September 2006

Irish mobile subscribers talked for almost 1.8 billion minutes in the third quarter of 2006 and sent 1.4 billion text messages.

The broadband market continued to grow strongly in this quarter, with 436,000 subscribers reported at the end of September. This equates to a penetration rate of 10.3 per cent, with 44 per cent of all internet subscribers now using a broadband service.

Eircom's share of the fixed line market was 72 per cent, a further 2 per cent drop in market share by revenue.

CRH board appointment

CRH has appointed William P Egan as a non- executive director to its board. A US citizen, Mr Egan (61) is a founder and general partner of Alta Communications, a venture capital company with headquarters in Boston.

He is past president and chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the board of overseers of the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

November export levels recover

The latest CSO figures show that export levels (when adjusted for seasonal factors) recovered from a dip recorded in September, increasing by 7 per cent in November to €7.8 billion.

The level of exports in the year to September increased by 3 per cent year-on-year to almost €66 billion, while imports grew by 6 per cent to €44 billion.

3.3% increase in North employment

The number of employee jobs in Northern Ireland grew by 3.3 per cent to 695,415 since September 2003, according to Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment census of employment.

Between September 2003 and September 2005, the service sector grew by 5 per cent or more than 26,000 jobs. Employment in the construction sector rose by 6 per cent or 2,329 jobs, while there was a decline of 5 per cent, or 4,187 jobs, in manufacturing.

Readymix board appointment

Readymix has announced that Ignacio Ortiz has been appointed non-executive director to its board. He succeeds Fernando Gonzalez who has resigned as a non-executive director.

A graduate of Stanford University, in 1989 Mr Ortiz joined Cemex, the majority shareholder in Readymix.

Tullow takeover of Hardman complete

Tullow Oil has announced the completion of its €865 million Hardman Resources takeover following approval by the Australian courts.

Hardman's shares have now been delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange and London's AIM.