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Irish M&A slumps to E1.5 billion in quarter one
M&A transactions in Ireland have fallen sharply in the first quarter of 2001, and industry expectations are that deals are continuing to run at reduced levels during the current quarter. |
Small countries to gain most - Mundell
Ireland and Luxembourg were singled out as being amongst the biggest gainers from the euro and the single European capital market by professor of economics at Columbia University and 1999 Nobel Laureate, Robert Mundell speaking in Dublin. |
Irish pension providers need to focus on risk management
Risk management was a core theme of the recent IAPF ‘European Pensions and Investing Summit’. |
ABN AMRO’s plans
ABN AMRO do not plan to replace the key role of economist following the departure of Dan McLaughlin earlier this year. |
IBF predicts Irish euro changeover will be ‘more traumatic’ than most
As the countdown to euro changeover continues, Irish preparations for the big day have come under scrutiny and criticism has been levied at Ireland’s dependence on paper transactions. |
Essential to convert share capital to euros
As the deadline for euro changeover looms, a firm of Dublin solicitors has reminded companies that they must convert company share capital to euros by 31 December 2001. |
OECD calls for coherent and determined approach to Ireland’s regulatory reforms
The OECD has just completed a review of Ireland’s regulatory reforms and is broadly supportive of the changes being made in the country. |
Board to boost insurance claims process
The Government intends to establish on a statutory basis a Personal Injuries Assessment Board to improve the efficiency of the insurance claims process. |
Online dealing launched
Goodbody’s Stockbrokers has launched an online share dealing service - ‘Goodbody Online’. |
Vision invests in Finance Matters
Vision Investments, the investment arm of Vision Consulting, has invested IEP2 million in the Dublin based pension consultancy firm, Finance Matters. Vision received a 40 per cent holding in Finance Matters for the consideration and the proceeds are being used to develop a new initiative in the pension administration market. |
Global billing outsourcing service launched
Irish based company TheoFinance has launched a global invoice management service to help Irish companies involved in foreign export reduce the time of payment for their goods and services. |
OUBS offers fast track training in accounting
The Open University Business School is launching a new Certificate in Accounting and with it a new route into the accounting profession. |
Commission takes stock of euro preparations
A recent report from the European Commission reveals that the state of preparation for euro changeover across the continent is patchy. |
CIPD warns of job losses on back of PRSI ceiling abolition
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has warned that job losses will stem from the abolition of the ceiling on employer PRSI payments. |
Salary levels in finance forecast to grow by 6.6 p.c. in 2001
Salary levels for top management, including finance, in Ireland are predicted to increase by an average of 6.6 per cent in 2001, according to a recently published management compensation survey by Watson Wyatt. |
EDITORIAL
Why the euro is (particularly) good for Ireland |
The efficiency of Ireland’s pension system will determine its place in the pan-European market
Alan Pickering, chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, (NAPF), UK and vice chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) made the opening address at the international pensions ponference held in Dublin last month. His keynote presentation was titled ‘The latest developments in European pension reform - what doors are opening?’ He outlines the basis of an efficient pension system for Europe. |
Cautious markets reflect change from bull to bear
In this year’s special focus on Mergers and Acquisitions, Finance has carried out an opinion survey among corporate finance advisers on market developments in M&A, MBOs and other types of corporate finance transactions. The answers together capture present thinking among Ireland’s corporate finance advisers on important topics such as sources of new finance, valuations, best deal structures, corporate restructuring and the degree of risk aversion among Irish management. |
Technology still among favoured areas for M&A, but ‘old economy’ trade sales prove emerge as the ‘old reliable’
In which areas do you expect most M&A activity among Irish companies in the coming 12 months, by industry sector; by deal type and by value of deals? |
Debt finance, private equity and corporate investors to the fore for financing M&A deals
Respondents were asked the folowing question: ‘Please rank in order of importance the sources of new funds for M&A/ corporate finance transactions of the type covered by this survey’. |
Opinion divided over trigger for restructuring
The question was: ‘What could most likely trigger a wave of corporate restructuring in Irish second line stocks?’ |
Good selling prices are still being achieved
We asked respondents to estimate the p/e of Irish private companies based on private corporate finance activity seen over the last year. |
Considerable interest internationally in Irish deals
Respondents answered the following question: ’What is the level of international interest in Irish M&A deals and what are its characteristics?’ as follows: |
Elan’s acquisition of Dura - most admired deal
Apart from deals that your firm had been involved in, which deal of the last 12 months do you most admire and why? |
Increased caution amongst Irish management reflects uncertain global markets
Respondents’ replies to the question: ‘How would you characterise Irish management's attitude to risk in relation to corporate finance deals at present (from 'over cautious' to 'too risk seeking')?’ |
M&A qualitative survey methodology
The survey relates to corporate finance events which change in some way the management and control of a business or two businesses together. |
Could be time for M&A bargain hunting
After a shaky first quarter on the international M&A front John Kehoe, partner at Mason Hayes & Curran, looks at the prospects for M&A activity and opportunities in the Irish market for the remainder of 2001. |
Changes in management attitudes to risk most apparent in the technology sector
Does management in different sectors display very different levels of risk aversion? |
Bear market will trigger different reasons for M&A
Opportunities for M&A in the international context still abound, but the switch from a bull to a bear market means that the drivers for making the deal have changed. According to Ivan Murphy the rationale now will be more on restructuring to save costs and improve performance to weather out the storm. |
Sound exits need sound capital markets
The recent stockmarket aversions to high tech and telecoms companies has left the international market jittery and, according to Ruairi O Nuallain, this demonstrates the need for sound investment principles when approaching mergers and acquisitions. |
Defence a key to explaining many financial services M&As
A recent report by Arthur Andersen on the rationale behind financial services M&As reveals that these deals are still mostly a defensive maneuver, which ignores the human and technology implications for making the deal work. |
Making IT investments pay their way
Owen Purcell reveals that recognising bad investments is the first step to making the most from e-finance. |
Balanced scorecard helps put the emphasis on corporate strategy
Balanced scorecards help to focus a company on its strategy and goals and is a process that can enhance a company’s reputation and credibility, says Patrick Durkin. |
Smoothing the FX path with CLS
Continuous Linked Settlement is a step forward in the search for a solution to eliminate settlement risk in FX trading but so far no Irish banks are participating. |
Day-trading the currencies
Paul McEnroe is a dealer on the Treasury & Institutional Desk at Bank of Ireland Treasury & International Banking. We take some time out to catch up with Paul’s foreign exchange trades, customer meetings and his search for a few weekend sporting bets. |
Wild geese
Clearstream Banking’s customer relations director provides a European, and Irish,
perspective from Luxembourg. |
Relief for the charitable
The Finance Act has made substantial changes to tax reliefs for voluntary donations. New conditions must be met to obtain relief, new mechanisms exist to deliver the relief, and the limits to relief. |
Who should pay?
The Committee Stage debates on the Finance Bill raised the issue as to whether it is right to have large bodies of citizens who are not taxpayers. Is there a danger of this situation arising? Would it be a bad thing? |
Business taxation
Some of the technical measures in the Finance Act have received little publicity but are of importance to business. Some effort has been made to bring our tax legislation into harmony with European Union requirements. The potential for tax planning created by our multiplicity of tax rates in the corporate area has been addressed by a ring fencing of losses. |
Reading the entrails
The Exchequer returns for the first quarter of the year have been published. Some commentators saw in the rate of increase of tax receipts, evidence of a slow-down in the economy. How useful are tax figures as a measure of the economy? |
Changes in accounting for defined benefit pension schemes
The ABS has issued a new accounting standard covering retirement benefits. For companies operating defined benefit pension plans, FRS 17 is expected to make a material difference to reported profits as well as require much more onerous disclosures than its predecessor, SSAP 24. |
Proactive management is the key to staff retention
Identifying bad managers and training them to become good managers is the key to staff retention writes Deiric McCann who believes that people leave people not jobs. |
