Ritz Music Group announced yesterday that it had completed the acquisition of two music industry groups in deals worth a total of £2.4 million.

The company, which is best known for being Daniel O'Donnell's record label, stated that Grapevine, the Londonbased Irish music record label and distribution group, had been purchased for £1.7 million, while the Dublin-based company, Ritz Production was acquired for £700,000.

Mr Clerkin said that the acquisition of Grapevine would "create a major new independent record label covering a wide audience and bringing in a number of superb artists". One of the former owners of Grapevine, Mr Paddy Prendergast, is the new chief executive of Ritz Music Group. Among Grapevine's artists are Mary Black, Sinead Lohan, Joan Baez and Emmy Lou Harris.