| Case study: Oracle's Irish Financial Shared Services Centre provides unanticipated corporate governance benefits in its fourth year |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| Oracle’s first shared services centre opened in Dublin in 1999 and now provides finance and administration infrastructure for Oracle business units across its Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA). Four years ago when setting up the Dublin SSC, Oracle could never have anticipated the additional benefit the SSC would provide in terms of improved corporate governance, writes Alan O’Reilly. |
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| Certificates of deposit - a welcome new addition to Ireland’s money markets |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| Changes in the Finance Act 2003 have made it possible for Irish resident financial institutions to issue certificates of deposit (CD) to Irish investors. Already a market is developing with two institutions, UniCredito Italiano Bank (Ireland) plc and EBS Building Society, recently commencing CD programmes. In this Special Report we examine the issues. |
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| CESR identifies four milestones in transition to IFRS |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has published its recommendation for regulators on how listed companies can effectively manage the communication of the financial impact of transitioning to international accounting standards in 2005. |
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| Come up and see me sometime: The Revenue's LCD division arranges meetings with major taxpayers |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| The Large Cases Division (LCD) was created to deal with the 300 largest corporate groups in the country, and the 200 wealthiest individuals. These major taxpayers have recently been in receipt of 'Mae West' type letters from the Revenue Commissioners, urging an early meeting. Will it be all tea and sympathy? |
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| Corporate banking overview 2003: corporate bond market emerges, and, at last, PPPs |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| The corporate bond market re-emerged as an alternative to conventional debt in 2003, writes John Reynolds, with capital raised via the bond market by Kerry Group, Greencore, Independent Newspapers, Greencore, and Waterford Wedgewood during the year. 'A market that was once neatly divided between large quoted public and private sector businesses and the state sector is now more complex and diffuse', he says. |
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| Corporate Finance Review & Outlook: MBOs and public to privates dominated deals in 2003 but will 2004 mark the return of the IPO ? |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| MBOs and de-listings by Alphyra and Riverdeep, amongst others, dominated the headlines in 2003, writes David O’Donnell, and he expects this trend to continue into 2004, adding that despite many pundits predicting the return of the IPO sometime this year, he believes that it won’t happen just yet. |
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| Do you avoid tax? |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| “In extreme cases, exploiting legal loopholes is not very different from a guilty man walking free because of a legal technicality” - the speaker is the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. In recent times the Revenue Commissioners have attacked tax avoidance. Politicians have made unfavourable noises about it. Comments on the topic of tax avoidance is becoming reminiscent of the McCarthy era. And yet, is there anybody potentially liable to tax who does not seek to avoid tax, asks Brian Daly |
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| GIPS extended to include private equity |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| New private equity provisions of the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS(r)) have been approved by the Board of Governors of the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR), the worldwide sponsor of the GIPS standards. |
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| How to ‘tap’ the market |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| In May 1966, the first CD ‘tap issue’ was launched in the London market writes John O’Farrell. Since then the market has gone from strength to strength, and as of November 2003, was worth approximately $470 billion, with CDS set to become a major growth area in the Dublin money market. |
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| ICAI calls for harmonisation of reporting obligations |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| Standardising auditors’ reporting obligations will be one of the first issues the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) will be bringing up with the new Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority when it is established on a statutory basis. |
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| Jobs in banks and finance continue to grow |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| Irish financial institutions currently employ around 38,000 people, the Irish Bankers’ Federation (IBF) Facts & Figures 2004 reveals, with an additional 4,500 new jobs created during 2002. The figures are consistent with results for IFSC jobs in 2002 in Dublin as compiled in the Finance Dublin Yearbook 2003. The 2004 Yearbook will be published in March, showing job creation for 2003, and initial indications for 2004 are positive with Merrill Lynch leading the way in projected employment for 2004 (185 jobs). (See separate story (left on this page). |
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| Latest EU Directives threaten to drive up costs, inefficiencies in broking, industry fears |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| The Irish broking industry is concerned over possible impact of the Investment Services Directive, targeted as an objective by the irish Presidency, while the Prospectus Directives means big changes are ahead for the Irish Stock Exchange. |
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| Meeting DEPFA BANK’s short-term funding needs |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| DEPFA BANK launched its euro commercial paper and certificates of deposit programme back in 1995, overcoming the difficulties at the time of selling to Irish investors by issuing in the name of the main German subsidiary, DEPFA Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG. Today the programme stands at approximately €15 billion, and forms an integral part of the bank’s short-term funding strategy writes Jackie Hughes. |
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| NTMA kicks off 2004 €4 bn debt programme (down €2.5b on 2003) |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| The first Irish Government bond of 2004 was launched on January 20th, with the NTMA expected to issue some €4 billion of bonds this year. |
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| Sale and leasebacks are a trend guaranteed to continue |
Issue: 01 / 2004 |
| One of the most notable trends of the past year in the property market has been the record number of sale and leaseback deals concluded writes John Moran, in this review of the Irish commercial property sector. |
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