A roundup of today's other business news in brief:

Firm settles action against Quinn Direct

A timber processing firm which claimed more than €54 million losses arising from a fire at its Galway premises in 2005 has settled its Commercial Court action against insurance company Quinn Direct.

The claim by Murray Timber Products Ltd was the biggest yet faced by Quinn Direct, Mr Justice Peter Kelly noted yesterday.

It arose after the firm's premises at Ballygar, Co Galway, was destroyed by fire on August 24th, 2005.

Murray Timber Products had an insurance policy with Quinn Direct and, as a preliminary issue, the court was asked to decide whether an agreement of August 1st, 2006 under which Quinn Direct Insurance Ltd, trading as Quinn Direct, was to pay some €14.7 million to the company was a full and final settlement of its claim.

Another issue was whether the business interruption cover was for a maximum €20 million over a two-year period, as Quinn Direct contended, or for a maximum €40 million, as the timber company alleged.

After talks between the sides, Mr Justice Kelly was told the matter had been settled with costs to Murray Timber Products for the entire proceedings.

Blackrock in London offices joint venture

Fyffes property spin-off Blackrock International Land has formed a joint venture with Cornerstone Capital Management to acquire and develop three office sites in London.

Blackrock yesterday outlined the details of the venture, first announced in January, saying it is investing €25 million for a 37.5 per cent stake.

The total project expenditure is expected to be about €205 million. Once developed, the sites could earn at least €10 million in rental income.

Record number at work in North

A record number of people are at work in Northern Ireland, according to the latest government figures released yesterday.

Seasonally adjusted numbers for the three months from January to March show that 776,000 people were in employment, the highest figure on record.

This represents a 1.2 per cent rise in employment over the quarter and a gain of 2.2 per cent over the year.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 per cent for the same period.

Ormonde records loss of €597,267

Ormonde Mining, the exploration minnow searching for gold, silver, copper, zinc and tungsten in Spain, recorded a loss of €597,267 last year as the group invested in its projects and wrote off the cost of unsuccessful drilling.

O2 revenue per customer falls

The monthly average revenue per user at mobile operator O2 during the first three months of the year was €44.20, down from €45 in the previous quarter.

Figures for the three months to the end of March show revenues grew 1.1 per cent year on year to €224 million, while the number of subscribers was relatively flat, at 1.633 million.

McInerney applies for new shares

Homebuilder McInerney said yesterday it had applied to the Irish and UK stock exchanges for 200 million new shares to be admitted for trading next Monday.

Each shareholder will now own five new ordinary shares for every share held.

New operations officer for Perlico

Telecoms and broadband operator Perlico has appointed former Vodafone executive Mark Cleary as chief operations officer.