Joe Brennan

Dublin

Markets Correspondent at Irish Times

Markets Correspondent with The Irish Times. Ex Bloomberg finance reporter in Dublin. E-mail: [email protected] https://t.co/hSrpaMGAt7

Articles

Ulster Bank to hand back Irish banking licence at the end of the week

5 days ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Ulster Bank Ireland confirmed on Monday that it will return its banking licence to the Central Bank at the end of the week, after 165 years in the Republic. The company, which is a unit of the NatWest Group in the UK, will be renamed Ulydien DAC and will operate as a retail credit firm as it continues a “phased and orderly” withdrawal of its operations. Philip Duff, who has held a number of senior roles in the bank for over two decades, will become managing director of Ulydien from the weekend.
Paschal Donohoe’s refusal to tackle banker bonus ban is hitting those who bought State’s shares

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Paschal Donohoe’s sale of the State’s remaining shareholding in AIB this week will pave the way for a crisis-era agreement that governed the Minister for Finance’s engagements with the bailed-out bank to be torn up within weeks.
The Irish firms seen as safe from Trump’s planned ‘revenge tax’

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Ireland’s largest public companies, CRH, Flutter Entertainment and Smurfit Westrock, are on track to be cocooned from the Trump administration’s planned controversial “revenge tax”, as tax advisers warn of the potential impact on other Irish businesses and individuals invested in the US.
Australian investor sells Irish social housing portfolio at a loss

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Broadstone Housing Investments, an entity in Ireland operated by Australian financial services giant Macquarie, has sold its social housing portfolio at a loss. It is believed that Broadstone is now on the block. Its authorisation to provide mortgage-to-rent solutions is likely to appeal to some property market participants.
Nordic group mulls higher offer for Dalata as it buys more shares in Irish hotel chain

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

A Scandinavian consortium circling Dalata Hotel Group has signalled an interest in potentially making an improved offer for the business, after its €1.3 billion bid was rejected earlier this month. Oslo-based investment firm Eiendomsspar and Swedish hotel company Pandox, in which it owns an almost 25 per cent stake, said on Friday that they have bought 1.69 million shares in Dalata at €6.30 – marking a premium to the €6.05-a-share non-binding offer it had made for the company.
Former Ires activist Vision to lose one board nominee as it cuts stake below 3%

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Ires Reit shareholder Vision Capital, which secured board seats for two nominees last year to resolve a standoff with the company, is on track to see one of those representatives step down after it reduced its holding in the business below 3 per cent. Toronto-based Vision, led by Jeff Olin, started a year-long campaign in April 2023 for a sale or break-up of Ireland’s largest private apartments owner.
How AIB, once worth less than its art collection, came back from the brink

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

In early March 2012, AIB’s chief executive of three months, David Duffy, unveiled a swingeing plan to cut one in five jobs – 2,500 in total – to restore the ailing lender to profitability and make a start on paying back its €20.8 billion taxpayer rescue. “If you were leaving, someone would bring out a Swiss roll and a packet of biscuits and people would gather around your desk.
Applegreen to invest $750m in Massachusetts motorway service stations under 35-year deal

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Applegreen, the Irish fuel forecourt retail group, has been awarded a 35-year contract to operate 18 motorway service areas in Massachusetts. Under the deal it will invest more than $750 million (€654 million) in the network. The group, backed by US private equity giant Blackstone, will spend the money replacing buildings at nine plazas and carrying out major renovations of the others, US news media reported. This would make it the biggest spending project Applegreen has entered into in the US.
Paul Coulson offered $250m to walk away from Ardagh amid crunch debt talks

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Businessman Paul Coulson has been offered $250 million (€218 million) by bondholders in Ardagh Group to walk away from the packaging empire he built over the past 25 years, as debt restructuring talks enter a crunch phase. The offer would see Mr Coulson cede control of the glass and metal containers giant, which has about $12.5 billion of borrowings, and abandon previous notions of retaining control of its prized Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) arm, the sources said.
Kenmare ends talks with former MD and Abu Dhabi firm as they lower bid

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Joe Brennan

Kenmare Resources has walked away from takeover talks with its former managing director Michael Carvill and an Abu Dhabi private equity firm after the consortium made it clear it would only be willing to proceed with a bid that was below its initial £473 million (€553 million) proposal. The titanium minerals miner said in a statement on Thursday that its board unanimously rejected the revised pricing “on the basis that it significantly undervalued Kenmare’s business and its prospects”.