A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
South Wharf shares pegged at €7.07
The board of South Wharf has set a price of €7.07 for an ordinary share in relation to the sale of the company to a firm called Becbay.
The share price is within the range of €7.04 and €7.08 given by South Wharf in a previous document. The shareholders also get one share in Lantor, a new company being created to take over South Wharf's agency sales business, for every one South Wharf share held.
Shareholders voted by a majority of 99.9 per cent in favour of the sale at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin late last year. They voted to sell the company to developers Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan and Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).
Three-for-one Lundin stock split
Lundin Mining, owner of the Galmoy zinc mine in Co Kilkenny, has announced a three-for-one stock split as approved by the group's shareholders at a special meeting in October in a bid to increase liquidity.
The split will be paid on February 8th to registered shareholders at the close of business on February 5th. Each shareholder will receive two additional shares for every share already held, bringing to 285 million the number of Lundin shares outstanding.
The new shares will start trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on February 1st and on the US Stock Exchange on February 9th.
Irish Ferries buys new passenger ship
Irish Ferries has announced the acquisition of a new passenger ferry to replace the outdated MV Normandy, ending months of speculation.
The m/s Kronprins Harald, which will replace the Normandy on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route at a cost of €45 million, comes from Norwegian ferry operator Color Line.
Irish Ferries will not take delivery of the new ship until October.
London band wins against Coca Cola
An unsigned British band has received an out-of-court financial settlement from Coca Cola following a plagiarism row with the drinks giant.
Ska band 7 Seconds of Love had threatened legal action over similarities between a soda advert, aired in Argentina, and its online track Ninja.
They were alerted to the advert after fans of the London band e-mailed the group from South America.
ECB warning of rising wage deals
Lower oil prices could help ease euro zone inflation pressures in 2007 but upward risks still prevail, European Central Bank governing council member Axel Weber said yesterday.
Mr Weber said the ECB had to act pre-emptively to protect price stability. He repeated earlier comments that higher-than-expected wage deals were the biggest risk to inflation.
The ECB this month kept its key rate at 3.5 per cent and left the door open another rate increase, possibly in March. - (Reuters)
Wolseley pretax profit down 14%
Wolseley Plc remains confident of outperforming rivals in its current financial year, but its shares fell more than 3 per cent yesterday as it said pretax profit dropped 14 per cent for the five months to the end of December.
The world's largest distributor of plumbing and heating products and building materials, Wolseley said the uncertainties over the recovery of the US housing market would remain throughout the second half and cautioned that higher interest rates in Britain may hit consumer confidence.
