A round-up of today's other stories in brief
€154m profit for Icelandic bank
Icelandic bank Landsbanki, which is the major shareholder in Merrion Capital Group, has reported an after-tax profit of €154 million for the first quarter of the year.
The bank's investment banking division, which includes its securities and treasury business alongside subsidiaries Merrion, Teather & Greenwood and Kepler Equities, made a pre-tax profit of 9.3 billion Icelandic Krona (€107.5 million) in the first quarter.
Although both the bank's overall after-tax profit and the investment banking division's pre-tax profit were down on the same period last year, it is understood that Merrion has had a strong start to 2007.
Moody's upgraded Landsbanki's ratings by two notches, from A2 to Aa3, as a result of yesterday's figures.
Readymix confident
Building materials group Readymix expects performance to continue to improve this year, despite margin pressures from high energy and labour costs.
Chairman Adrian Auer told its annual general meeting yesterday that "against a background of good market demand, the year's trading has started satisfactorily, in line with our performance for the same period last year".
African Eagle signs gold deal
AIM-listed exploration group African Eagle has signed a joint venture with Randgold Resources on its Miyabi gold project in Tanzania.
Under the terms of the agreement, Randgold will fund and carry out a pre-feasibility study in return for a 50 per cent stake in the project. African Eagle then has the option to retain a 49 per cent by co-funding a full feasibility study or to dilute its holding to 35 per cent.
Mark Parker, African Eagle's managing director, welcomed the announcement, saying he was "delighted to have signed one of Africa's most exciting and successful" gold companies as a partner.
New Alltracel skin products
Pharmaceutical group Alltracel yesterday announced the successful development of Phytopeutics, a range of skin-focused health solutions.
The company has been developing the range for the past year. Chief executive Tony Richardson said yesterday that the successful completion of the project represents an exciting opportunity for Alltracel to enter what is a high- consumption, high-margin international market.
Elan releases MS drug data
Biotech group Elan and its US joint venture partner Biogen Idec released new data on their multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri at a US conference.
The companies reported to the American Academy of Neurology in Boston that the benefits to MS patients of treatment with Tysabri is sustained over three years.
Data from the first patients to reach the three-year term on the drug indicated they were progressively less likely to suffer a relapse over the period.
The risk of increasing disability was reduced, the companies reported.
Unilever lifts sales in Europe
Unilever reported unexpectedly strong first- quarter results yesterday as sales rose in Europe, raising hopes that the Anglo-Dutch maker of Hellman's mayonnaise and Sunsilk shampoo can deliver growth in both sales and profit margins.
Unilever's shares rose 4.4 per cent to £16.25 in afternoon trading after the group reported a 5.7 per cent increase in underlying sales in the first quarter ahead of its target range of 3 to 5 per cent.
Profit margins rose 0.4 per cent to 13.7 per cent after restructuring costs. - ( Financial Timesservice)
