A roundup of today's other news stories in brief
Examiner appointed to Galway firm
The High Court yesterday confirmed the appointment of an examiner to Galway construction company Treform.
The subcontracting company specialises in formwork, concrete placing and reinforcement.
The court was told on October 26th, during a hearing to appoint the interim examiner, that at least 70 of the company's 150 employees were likely to lose their jobs.
The company, which has been in business for 22 years, has liabilities of €2.45 million. The firm had traded profitably until September 2006 but had financial difficulties over the past 12 months arising from a contract it held in the construction of Athlone shopping centre.
It has been recommended that the company secure further investment and change its internal control procedures. Tom Kavanagh of accountants Kavanagh Fennell was confirmed as examiner.
Arthur Beesley wins journalism award
Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent with The Irish Times, has won the Business Feature award in the inaugural UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School awards for business journalism.
The award was made in respect of a series of interview pieces with senior business figures, including John Gallagher of Crownway and Danny Murray of Topaz Energy.
Other winners included Kathleen Barrington of the Sunday Business Postand Brian Carey of the Sunday Times. Ciarán Hancock and Laura Slattery of The Irish Timeswere shortlisted in the Business Comment and Specialist Business Reporting categories respectively. Beesley was also shortlisted in the Business Comment section.
Tullow considers licence bid
Tullow Oil is considering whether to bid for a licence to search for oil and gas offshore Barbados, a company spokesman said yesterday.
The deadline for submissions is April 4th, 2008. In the meantime, it will apply for a data pack and assess the available seismic data, he said.
Origin directors share €459,000
The two executive directors of Origin, the Iaws agribusiness spin-off, shared remuneration of €459,000 for the year to July 2007.
Origin chief executive Tom O'Mahony and finance director Brendan Fitzgerald shared basic salaries of €218,000 and performance bonuses worth €196,000 as part of their overall remuneration. Origin, which was incorporated in September 2006 and later floated, recorded higher than expected growth in its first year.
Non-executive director Hugh Cooney was paid €8,000, while chairman Owen Killian and non-executive director Patrick McEniff, who are chief executive and finance director of Iaws respectively, did not receive any payment for their role.
Horizon to cut share account
Horizon Technology Group has been granted a High Court order to allow it to reduce its share premium account by the amount necessary to eliminate accumulated losses. This clears the way for the Dublin- and London-listed firm to make dividend payments to shareholders.
Failed buyouts hit $202bn
Private equity bidders are finding life difficult since the credit squeeze and are walking away from deals, inflating the value of failed buyouts to $202 billion (€1138.8 billion) this year, more than double the figure for the same period last year.
There have been 76 lost deals worth $202.3 billion so far, said Dealogic. That compares with 55 failed bids worth $98.9 billion last year. - (Financial Times service)
