US banking and financial services giant Citi is creating almost 150 jobs in Northern Ireland, it was announced today.
The positions will be at the company’s Belfast operations centre, which it opened in 2004, and will boost employment there to more than 850.
The operations division supports Citi’s markets and banking business around the world.
The team works with Citi bases globally to ensure efficient and effective clearance, settlement and execution of more than one trillion dollars-worth of trades and the movement of billions of dollars in dozens of currencies every day.
Invest NI, Northern Ireland’s economic generation agency, has offered £2 million towards the investment by Citi.
The announcement was made by Stormont Economy Minister Arlene Foster, who said that, as had been demonstrated by the US-NI Investment conference in May, Northern Ireland could supply the high-quality skills and infrastructure which international banking institutions, such as Citi, needed to remain competitive.
Citi, which currently operates out of a number of locations in Belfast, including the White Star Building at the Northern Ireland Science Park, also confirmed today that, to facilitate its growth plans, it has signed a lease to occupy two of the three new Gateway Office Buildings at the Titanic Quarter which is being developed on former shipyard land beside the River Lagan.
Meanwhile a Co Derry company is investing several million in setting up roadside paving centres across Ireland and Britain, it was announced today.
Tobermore, the leading manufacturer of concrete and natural stone products, is looking for some 18 sites from which to sell direct to the public.
It has now hired commercial property agency Lisney to find new outlets in Ireland and Scotland and joint agent Rapleys to source sites in the north of England in a move which it is believed could eventually create close to 200 jobs.
The company is more known for selling to the construction industry but has hired agents to find it a series of prominent roadside sites of at least three quarters of an acre each on which to set up outlets to the public.
Privately owned, it started business in 1942 as a sand and gravel business and has developed from there.
The company currently operates from its base in Tobermore as well Dublin and Cork and garden centre outlets in Bangor, Galway and Leyland in Lancashire.
Nicky Finnieston , associate director at Lisney , said suitable sites in Glasgow, Manchester, Kildare and Sligo were “immediate priorities”.
The other locations being targeted include Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sunderland, York, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston and Lancaster in England, Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford, Athlone and Dundalk in the Irish Republic and Dundee in Scotland.
Mr Finnieston said: “Tobermore has more than 60 years experience and is renowned for its market leading initiatives, including the development of the paving and walling centre concept on the island of Ireland.
“These centres offer the customer the opportunity to view a vast range of paving and walling products at first hand in a fully landscaped environment; benefiting from expert design advice and the opportunity to take samples home.”
PA