Today's other stories in brief

Chavez singles out Kappa Smurfit

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has said he "has his eyes" on land holdings of Dublin-based Smurfit Kappa Group because their eucalyptus plantations are sapping local rivers of water. "There's the land of Smurfit. I've got my eye on Smurfit," Mr Chavez said in comments on state television.

Mr Chavez seized a 1,500-hectare plantation from the European cardboard-box maker on March 5th, and the government seized a rice mill owned by US foodmaker Cargill this year in moves to regulate foreign private companies operating in Venezuela.

Mr Chavez didn’t say which plot of land he was referring to and said government officials were preparing a report on Kappa’s land holdings in Venezuela. – (Bloomberg)

ISE place for JP Morgan

JP Morgan has been admitted as a member firm of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE), and will operate as a primary dealer in Irish Government bonds.

This brings to 11 the number of primary dealers that are members of the exchange.

Brokers critical of mortgage product

A new product launched on the mortgage market has been criticised by brokers for its onerous loan-to-value requirements for existing homeowners.

KBC Homeloan has launched a new variable rate product offering an interest rate of 2.59 per cent. Mortgage-holders who wish to switch from their existing lender to this product are required to have a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of just 60 per cent.

Frank Conway of the Irish Mortgage Corporation described this requirement as “onerous” and said it will exclude many potential customers, particularly in light of the significant property price reductions since 2008.

The main lenders in the market are still offering mortgages of between 90 and 92 per cent LTV, Mr Conway said.

Manufacturing production up

A strong performance by the modern sector of the economy, including pharmaceutical, chemical and technology firms, lifted the annual rate of manufacturing production by 3.8 per cent in the year to April.

Industrial production and turnover figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that the modern sector rose 11.3 per cent, while the traditional sector production and turnover fell by 14.9 per cent.

New Kingspan role for McCarthy

Kingspan said Louis Eperjesi will resign as managing director of its insulated panels unit from July 31st and will be replaced by Gilbert McCarthy.

Mr McCarthy is currently the managing director of the group’s off-site division.