A round-up of today's other business news in brief

Hurley to stay on at Central Bank

The Government is to reappoint the governor of the Central Bank, John Hurley, when he completes his term of office in March. Mr Hurley, a former secretary general at the Department of Finance, will not serve a full second seven-year term as governor, but is likely to remain on for a shorter time to cover the transition period amid the continuing financial crisis.

The Department of Finance said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was "anxious that the governor would continue in office . . . to ensure continuity and leadership during the current disruption in financial markets."

Mr Hurley has been governor since 2002.

Tullow reports 'light oil columns'

Tullow Oil said yesterday that its Mahogany-3 well off Ghana had found "light oil columns", confirming a "significant" extension of the Jubilee field to the southeast.

The drilling results were likely to lead to a higher resource expectation for Jubilee, possibly up to 20 per cent higher. The company plans to invest about €2.3 billion to develop the field and produce oil there by 2010.

CRH takes 26% stake in Yatai Cement

CRH has completed the purchase of a 26 per cent stake in Yatai Cement for approximately €224 million. The Irish buildings material giant said Yatai Cement is a leading player in northeast China and is in the top 10 of cement suppliers in the country.

Yatai has four cement plants and four separate grinding stations with a capacity of 14 million tonnes per annum.

Brendan Dwan to retire from CC

CC Group, the Irish maker of Magners cider, said yesterday that finance director Brendan Dwan will retire in May and will be replaced by Stephen Glancey.

Mr Glancey will retain his role as chief operating officer.

Brokers 'unaware of obligations'

An investigation by the financial regulator into allegations of a potential conflict of interest between mortgage brokers and estate agents found an unspecified number of companies were unaware of their obligations.

The regulator said it had investigated 91 of the 2,100 mortgage intermediaries in the market to examine how they handled potential conflicts of interest. While most had avoided conflicts of interest, a number "did not differentiate between services regulated by the financial regulator and those that are not".

The regulator said it has written to all mortgage brokers to remind them of their obligations under the Consumer Protection Code in relation to conflicts of interest.

The investigation also found "a number of intermediaries might not have been familiar with their obligations under the Code".

Modern sector drives industrial activity

The modern sector of the economy, including chemical, pharmaceutical, and technology firms, was the main driver of industrial activity in the year to November, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Industrial production figures show an increase of 2.7 per cent overall over the 12 months to the end of November. Within this, the modern sector showed a year-on-year rise in production for November of 3.9 per cent; a decrease of 0.7 per cent was reported in the traditional sector.

Euro zone sentiment hits record low

Euro zone economic sentiment set record lows in December amid rising unemployment. Inflation expectations tumbled, further strengthening the case for a deep European Central Bank rate cut. The European Commission said economic sentiment in the 15 countries using the euro in December plunged to 67.1 points - the lowest since records began in 1990 - from 74.9 in November.