A roundup of today's other business news in brief
Liquidator named to Silks casino
Creditors this week appointed accountant Peter Lowry of Dublin firm Lowry and Associates as liquidator of casino operator, Silks Private Members Club Ltd.
The company, which operated a high-end casino club on Dublin’s Earlsfort Terrace, is winding up the business following a sharp fall in demand that resulted from the recession.
Director and shareholder Leonard Kinsella said last month that trade had dwindled to the point where the business was no longer sustainable. “We just weren’t getting the trade.”
Hypo may report 2011 profit
Hypo Real Estate, the German property lender that was taken into government ownership, has hinted at a possible early return to profit as it revealed a narrower than expected first-half loss.
The lender is set to transfer up to €210 billion of assets into a “bad bank” unit by the end of this year. It said yesterday it would then give guidance on its 2011 performance.
It is the first time Hypo has suggested it might change its repeated assumption that it would not be profitable before 2012. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Warner Chilcott sells $750m in unsecured debt to finance dividend
Warner Chilcott, the Irish-based maker of birth-control pills, has sold $750 million of eight-year notes to help finance a dividend for its shareholders. The company sold the senior unsecured debt late on Thursday night with a yield of 7.75 per cent, or 550 basis points more than similar-maturity US Treasuries.
The Ardee drugmaker was also seeking $1.5 billion in term loans to pay for the $8.50-a-share dividend. JPMorgan, Credit Suisse Group AG, Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners acquired Warner Chilcott in a 2005 leveraged buyout. They remain its biggest shareholders, with a 50.8 percent combined stake, after a 2006 initial public offering.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are arranging the new term loans with a proposed interest rate 4.25 percentage points. – (Bloomberg)
Sunday newspaper readership
The latest Joint National Readership figures, compiled by Millward Brown Lansdowne, showed that the Irish News of the Worldhad 533,000 readers in the 12 months to the end of June 2010, up 4,000 on the previous year.
The Irish Mail on Sundayhad 332,000 readers, up 37,000, while the Irish Daily Star Sunday's readership fell by 19,000 to 213,000. Readership of the Irish Sunday Mirrorrose by 9,000 to 146,000. Sunday newspaper readership as a whole fell back by 10,000.
