A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Mobile phone group to close Dublin facility
The mobile phone group GSM Association is to close its Deansgrange facility in Dublin with the potential loss of 45 jobs. GSM Association co-ordinates roaming facilities and the sending of text messages among 700 global mobile phone operators, representing two billion customers worldwide.
The announcement that the Deansgrange facility is to close in March of next year was made to staff yesterday morning. They have been offered either home working or location to GSM Association offices in London or Atlanta in the US.
Ely Property in UK acquisition
Ely Property has acquired a 605-bed student accommodation building in Nottingham in a sale and leaseback deal that brings the number of beds it manages to 1,610. The company, now a division of support services group Newcourt, said it was on track to achieve a target of close to 2,000 beds before the end of 2007.
PIBA praises new European directive PIBA, the insurance brokers' lobby group, has described the proposed new European insurance directive Solvency II as "genuinely groundbreaking". Diarmuid Kelly, the association's chief executive, said the new directive would provide Irish consumers with cover for "real risks", as opposed to risks selected and limited by the insurance industry.
Solvency II, which is scheduled to take effect from 2012, is designed to protect insurance policyholders by guaranteeing the financial stability of insurance companies.
AIB bases €30m seed fund at UCD
AIB has decided to base its €30 million Seed Capital Fund at NovaUCD, the innovation and technology transfer centre at University College Dublin. The fund was the first established before Enterprise Ireland's €175 million Seed and Venture Capital Scheme. The average initial investment made by the €30 million fund will be €250,000.
China revises GDP growth upwards
China yesterday revised its 2006 gross domestic product growth to 11.1 per cent from 10.7 per cent, marking it the fastest annual expansion since 1994.
The National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that the upward revision was due to greater output by the industrial and service sectors than initially reported. - (Reuters)
Oil price drops below $76 a barrel
Oil eased back below $76 a barrel yesterday after a snapshot of oil inventories in the US showed a surprise drawdown in crude oil inventories but a bigger than expected rise in gasoline. London Brent crude, now seen as a better indicator of the global market, was down 63 cents at $75.77 a barrel by mid-afternoon. - (Reuters)
Ireland big on shopping space
The Republic has the third highest level of shopping centre space per capita in Europe, according to a new study from property advisers Jones Lang LaSalle. The research shows that of the five million square metres of new shopping centre space completed in 18 European countries last year, the Republic accounted for more than 115,635sq m. The Republic now has more than 1.71 million of shopping centre space, with almost half of it located in Dublin.
Call for changes to tendering process
Chambers Ireland has called for an overhaul of the Government's procurement and tendering process, with a view to helping more SMEs win tendered contracts. The association wants public servants to develop a "less conservative outlook" when making purchasing decisions.
