An Post sends love to its workers; new business districts springs to life; graduates forgive and foret; O'Brien and O'Reilly

An Post sends its love to workersLOVE APPEARS to have broken out between management and workers at An Post.

Announcing record results this week, the State postal group's recently installed chairman, John Fitzgerald, said the "progress" was "due in no small measure to the improved industrial relations climate with the company, with management, staff and trade unions committed to the delivery of the transformation plan".

You could almost imagine our postmen and women having a group hug before merrily setting off on their bikes from the sorting office each morning.

It's all in stark contrast to the strained relations between management and unions during Donal Curtin's stewardship, which ended in mid-2006.

Workers, however, do have one bone of contention with An Post and Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan - the failure to establish an employee share ownership plan (Esop), which would have given them 5 per cent of the company in a tax-efficient manner.

The Esop was agreed in 2000 as part of a restructuring programme involving changes to work practices.

An Post's annual report, released on Tuesday, shows that a provision of €19.05 million has been made for its introduction.

The Esop was shelved by the Government under Curtin's watch due to concerns about the group's financial health.

However the Communications Workers Union (CWU) is now keen to resolve the issue and has proposed that a small group - comprising people from the company, department and unions - be established to develop the matter.

"We've had no response yet," said CWU general secretary Steve Fitzpatrick. "It's in limbo at the moment. If the Esop is a dead duck then we need to find a different way to distribute these [ €19.05 million cost] savings to workers."

The CWU holds its annual conference in Kilkenny next week and Fitzpatrick says the Esop will be high on the agenda.

Sun shines on launch of another business district

LAST WEEK it was "Airport City"; this week it was the turn of "Profile Park" to launch its all-singing, all-dancing business district for Dublin.

Situated close to Baldonnel aerodrome in southwest Dublin and overlooking the golf course at Grange Castle, the €1 billion, 125-acre project is expected to take up to five years to construct.

Promoted by David Agar, one of the main movers behind Beacon Court in Sandyford and the Harcourt Building, and backed by AIB, it hopes to attract companies looking for head office accommodation on the fringe of the city centre.

Mobile phone group Meteor is rumoured to be considering it as a site to consolidate its various offices.

A multinational pharmaceuticals group and American data back-up company are also thought to be close to signing on the dotted line.

The facility will also incorporate a "trade city", a "retail street" and the country's largest "motor park" - exciting stuff.

Agar is promising a range of retail, hotel (run by Sheraton) and leisure facilities from day one, so avoiding mistakes made in nearby Park West, a somewhat soulless business park, congested with traffic.

The sun shone on launch day, although the decline in our construction industry and future economic growth places a large, dark cloud over the scheme.

Ever the optimist, Agar, who spent €50 million buying the land, is bullish. "

This will be Citywest but better," he said.

"We'll have the best access of any business park [ in Dublin]; that's a fact and we'll build it out to meet demand. You couldn't get in or out of Sandyford when it was built; this will be different."

Agar has some form when it comes to turning a buck from property. In 2004, he bought a four-acre site in Sandyford for €14 million. Fifteen months later he sold it on for close to €100 million when the market was at its peak. "It was a good deal but I've since spent all the money buying other property," he says.

AIB graduate candidates forgive and forget

IRISH THIRD-LEVEL students are clearly a magnanimous lot given that AIB picked up the gong for best bank at the Grad-Ireland graduate recruitment awards on Wednesday.

It's only a few weeks since AIB wrote to every "successful" candidate for its graduate recruitment programme this year saying it was "not in a position to make any job offers at this point in time". The graduates, it would seem, were caught in the the credit crunch.

So AIB top brass must have been chuffed to hear they'd beaten Anglo Irish Bank into second place for the banking prize. In the letter, AIB told the candidates it appreciated the time and effort they put into the selection process and wished them success in the future. "Your application will be reviewed over the coming months and should a suitable position arise we will be in contact with you."

Given that voting began in January, we can only presume that the candidates had sent in their ballot papers in advance ofthe bad news. Either that or they're a forgiving bunch.

Stock exchanges agree to request from Denis the 'dissident'

WE'RE NOT sure of the exact score in the game of tit-for-tat between Denis O'Brien and Sir Anthony O'Reilly over Independent News & Media (IN&M), but the telecoms tycoon added to his tally recently by persuading the London and Irish stock exchanges to remove a statement from their archives labelling him a "dissident" shareholder. The statement, which accused O'Brien of trying to destabilise the media group, was issued on March 27th by IN&M as it cranked up its defence to O'Brien's allegations of cronyism and poor corporate governance.

It was released on the same day as IN&M's company results.

Not one to take that sort of thing lying down, O'Brien made representations to the two stock exchanges seeking to have the offending IN&M statement removed. Both bourses appear to have complied with the request - the statement isn't to be found on either website.

As distributors of company statements rather than publishers, they are not required to rule on the validity of their content and so removing the statement was a simple exercise.

A small victory to O'Brien then, although the O'Reillys probably aren't too pushed.

The statement received acres of coverage from media around the world at the time of its release and is still available on IN&M's website and other internet sites - investigate.co.uk being an example.

With O'Reilly and his fellow directors controlling more than 29 per cent of IN&M's shares and O'Brien owning about 22 per cent, this game could yet end up with a winner-takes-all shoot-out.

Park's 30-acre site within Airport City

LAST WEEK'S launch of the Dublin Airport Authority's (DAA) €4 billion "Airport City" won't have gone unnoticed at Park Developments, the residential and commercial construction company run by Michael Cotter.

Park, which was responsible for the Leopardstown shopping centre, and which is behind the redevelopment of Greystones Harbour, owns a 30-acre site close to the airport, which has been included by the DAA in its 350-acre footprint for the new business district.

The land could be worth up to €4 million an acre at present values. Given the scale of the DAA's plans and the importance of the site to the overall scheme, Mr Cotter might fancy extracting a higher return, or even taking a slice of the action on what will be a 15-to-20-year construction project.

Another interested onlooker is Aer Lingus. Its outdated head office building sits on 13 acres within the airport complex and is also included in the DAA's blueprint, although, under the airport manager's proposed timetable, it would be one of the last sites due for development.

Aer Lingus owns the building and has a lease with the DAA that runs until 2062. Its development potential is believed to be the reason for Liam Carroll's presence on Aer Lingus's share register and the airline desires to develop the site. Some interesting negotiations lie ahead.