| Shannon - overcoming the digital divide |
Issue: 04 / 2006 |
| With over 1,000 financial services industry jobs, Shannon has established itself as a centre of excellence for a range of financial and international service activities, proving to be the location of choice for institutions such as GE Money, Genworth Financial and Halifax. The area is currently preparing itself for the next generation of companies, by updating and expanding the commercial property facilities in the region. |
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| Syndicated loans in the Irish market grew by 50 per cent in 2005 |
Issue: 04 / 2006 |
| Brendan McGrath looks back over corporate banking transactions of the past year, and highlights the growth of syndicated lending, which grew by 50 per cent in the Irish market to reach €13.3 billion, and private placements, as Irish corporates become more demanding. He also examines the changing relationships banks now have with their corporate clients. |
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| The cap and how it fits |
Issue: 04 / 2006 |
| The Finance Act 2006 has introduced a cap on the extent to which it is possible to take advantage of certain tax reliefs in aggregate. It will make tax based financing of projects or activities more difficult in the future. |
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| The CFO’s management checklist |
Issue: 04 / 2006 |
| Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) have been faced with a challenging landscape over the past number of years, due to developments such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, local governance requirements such as the impending Directors’ Compliance Statements, and the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. While the breadth and complexity of the CFO’s agenda will not go away, Shane Mohan writes that it may begin to stabilise, thus allowing the CFO to move out of a reactionary mode into a more planned and structured approach, enabling the finance function to add enhanced value to the organisation. |
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| The Nominations: Capital Markets ‘Deals of the Year’ |
Issue: 04 / 2006 |
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| A Day in the Life: Steve Haggerty, managing director of Homeloan Management (HML) |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| Steve Haggerty is managing director of Homeloan Management (HML), which processes mortgages on behalf of some of the UK and Ireland’s largest building societies. He was in Dublin recently for the presentation of a study HML commissioned. The study looked at the underlying socio and economic conditions that prevail in the Irish housing market and their potential long term impact on the housing and mortgage markets. |
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| AIB to issue ICBs |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| AIB is set to become the second mortgage bank, and the third Irish bank, to enter the burgeoning Irish covered bond (ICB), or Asset Covered Securities (ACS) market. The bank, which received authorisation for its new mortgage bank, AIB Mortgage Bank as a ‘designated credit institution’ by the Financial Regulator in February, is set to embark on a €15 billion programme. In 2006, the bank is expected to issue up to €4 billion. |
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| Arthur Cox wins award |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| Arthur Cox was awarded European Law Firm of the Year at the ‘Legal Business’ Awards 2006, which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. Some of the most prominent law firms in Europe were short listed for the award, including White & Case and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. |
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| Candidates with international experience are sought after |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| Candidates with good exposure to new financial products, and who have worked overseas in global investment banks, are highly sought-after in the current recruitment market, as the Irish market requires innovative investment solutions. Professionals with solid experience in trading or fund management are also highly sought-after, according to Robert Walters’ annual salary survey 2006. |
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| Corporates are not taking advantage of cheap debt |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| Public companies should borrow as cost of debt has fallen by up to a third. |
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| Date for your Diary: Covered Bonds seminar |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| IXIS Corporate & Investment Bank, a major player in the European capital markets, will be holding a Covered Bond conference in Dublin on 28th April, ‘European Covered Bonds: Investing in a Dynamic Asset Class’. |
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| Deal flow is up |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| Global M&A transaction levels were at their highest level since 2000, writes Gerard Flood, and growth in Ireland was also strong. Across the entire market, the inevitable factors that conspired to making deals more challenging to complete included pension liabilities and agreement to the level of underfunding, achieving adequate satisfaction of an ability to put funding in place and on occasion a lack of trust between the parties to the deal. |
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| Deal of the Year: deal values are up in 2006 as Irish corporates look for diversification |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| The nominations for the FINANCE ‘Deal of the Year’ 2006, which are chosen by a panel of corporate financiers to reflect the best and most innovative deals of the past year. We look at why these deals were nominated, and also the key trends in Ireland’s corporate finance market over the past year, such as an increase in diversification, as corporates look to expand their product offering. |
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| European co-production to provide future for Irish film industry |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| The inaugural Film Industry Conference, addressing the Changing Landscapes of European Film Finance, took place on Thursday, 23 February on the back of the recently enhanced incentive scheme for Irish film production in the Finance Bill 2006. |
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| Expatriates hit |
Issue: 03 / 2006 |
| The ending of the remittance basis of taxation of expatriates, in so far as it applied to employment income from duties in Ireland, requires both employees and employers to urgently consider their situation. Both face potential, difficult to quantify, tax exposures as a result of the hasty curtailment of the remittance basis. |
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