A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Boost for Comers in bid for Aston Villa

The Irish-led €93 million bid to buy English premiership soccer club, Aston Villa, got a boost yesterday. Club chairman and shareholder, Doug Ellis, said talks with Irish brothers Brian and Luke Comer had a prudent and positive outcome.

The Comers, who made their money in property development, are bidding to buy the loss-making club through their vehicle, Aston Villa Investments Ltd (Avil). It has offered €93 million, just over €8 a share for the club.

Avil is fronted by lifelong Villa fan Mike Neville, who is chairman of exploration group, Minmet.

Last week the Villa board hired merchant bank, NM Rothschild to help it find a buyer for the business. One of Rothschild's roles will be to establish if Avil has the funds to buy the club.

The Comer brothers originally hail from Galway.

Delaney new Ibec business director

Business lobby Ibec has announced that Pat Delaney, who is currently director of the Small Firms Association, will become director of business sectors.

Mr Delaney has led the SFA since 1998, building the profile of the small business sector in Ireland. In his new role, he will work with the individual directors of different business sectors on issues of major significance to their competitiveness.

Eircom awards for Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture and Food won three of the seven Innovation Through Technology awards presented by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last night.

The awards, sponsored by Eircom and run by Inside Government magazine, recognise excellence and creativity in technology initiatives in the public sector.

McInerney buys land in Merseyside

McInerney Homes has agreed to buy land in Merseyside for £2.6 million (€3.8 million) in cash from Park Group. The purchase of the land in north-west England is subject to a number of conditions, including planning permission and a report on the suitability of the site for development.

Siemens' global orders up 31%

Siemens, the German electronics group that employs more than 800 people in Ireland, said last night the group had made a good start to its financial year here and that orders were strong.

Speaking after the group reported a 31 per cent increase in new orders globally in the three months to the end of December.