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VC set to slow as sector enters fundraising cycle
With Ireland's venture capital sector entering a fundraising cycle, and an increasing range of alternative investment options available to start-up firms, expectations are that 2007 will be a slower year for VC investment. |
Top deals nominated
Last year was a very busy year in the Irish corporate finance and capital markets, as illustrated by the volume of deals nominated for this year's FINANCE 'Deals of the Year' awards. |
Government sends clear message to Brussels
The Government has firmly set out its opposition to tax harmonisation and the European Commission's plans to introduce a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). |
Innovative capital markets deals by Irish
Anglo Irish Bank has become the third Irish mortgage bank to issue covered bonds, following its establishment of a €2 billion covered bond programme. |
Editorial
Comment from the editor |
New perspectives for electronic fixed income trading in Europe
The European electronic fixed income trading market is experiencing fundamental strategic shifts, as continued efforts to standardise the market is leading to electronic trading and voice assisted trading being brought together, writes Frank Gast, in this summary of BearingPoint's latest white paper into the sector. |
Bonjour to funding
Both EBS Building Society and Irish Life & Permanent have accessed the French market over the past month, raising up to €4.5 billion in total. |
Pensco links up with Northern Trust
Pensco, the pensions management company has linked up with the asset management arm of Northern Trust, to offer index funds and global cash funds to Irish defined contribution (DC) pension market. |
MiFID is transposed
Ireland has become one of the latest member states to fully transpose the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) |
FTI expands into the east
FTI, the specialist treasury management, consultancy and systems company, has been awarded the contract to provide the debt management system for the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance (MoPF). |
Springboard signs up with HML
Springboard Mortgages Ltd, the new specialist mortgage lender formed by Irish Life & Permanent and Merrill Lynch, has signed a three year servicing contract with HML. |
BOI moves out of La Touche house
ue to continued expansion in its international lending businesses, Bank of Ireland has brought all of its Dublin based corporate banking teams together at the bank's head office in Baggot Street. |
IFSC needs to harness the plans and ideas of a new generation
Padraig Rushe looks back over the past twenty years of the IFSC and pays tribute to its hugely significant contribution to Ireland's economic recovery these past 20 years. However, he adds that perhaps now is the time to rekindle the vision, the enthusiasm and the dynamism that drove forward this unique project. |
Directors & Officers liability - an increasingly perilous landscape for Irish directors
Directors of Irish companies are increasingly at risk from claims brought against them for so-called 'wrongful acts', writes Breege Lynn, which can put their own private assets in jeopardy and the financial viability of their companies at risk. Moreover, legislation currently finding its way through the Oireachtas in the form of the Criminal Justice Mutual Assistance Bill 2005, will have far reaching consequences, she adds. |
Private equity and MBOs feature prominently in this year's nominations
The past year was an extremely busy one for Ireland's corporate finance and capital markets, as illustrated by the number of nominations for this year's 'Deals of the Year' awards. The most high profile deals of the past year are included in the awards, such as Riverdeep's reverse takeover of Houghton Mifflin, which was valued at around $4.6 billion, and was the largest ever Irish M&A transaction and the largest private company fundraising and Aer Lingus' IPO and Ryanair's subsequent takeover attempt of the airline. |
Nominations for FINANCE Deals of the Year 2007
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Major deals and big brands: a review of 2006
It is not an exaggeration to say that 2006 was one of the hottest years on record for corporate banking. While there were a number of massive deals during the year, the real buzz in the sector had as much to do with the brands involved, as with the value and nature of the transactions, writes Rachel Naughton. |
Private equity continues to dominate M&A deals - is it time for corporates to fight back?
David Carson outlines how there has been a shift in the M&A marketplace with private equity now out-performing corporate. This is putting in-house teams under increasing pressure, he says and asks whether it is time now for the corporates to fight back? |
Public Private Partnerships, a closed shop or is there room for smaller players?
As the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) market in Ireland continues to mature, Kenny Whitelaw-Jones asks whether this is the time for smaller regional construction firms to take their share of the market. |
Moving back to Dublin doesn't mean lowering career expectations
Where once moving back to Dublin from top financial centres London or New York meant a step down in career or salary, this is no longer necessarily the case, writes Cara O'Leary, in an overview of Dublin's increasing prominence as a global financial centre from a recruitment perspective. |
Law firm looks to Cork for staff
Dillon Eustace has become the first large financial services law firm to open a second office in Ireland. The move is largely driven by staff requirements, as Dillon Eustace hope to attract experienced professionals from outside of Ireland to the rebel county. |
NTMA seeks external transition expertise
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is setting up a transition manager panel in a move to minimise costs. |
Working in Russell Brennan Keane
Russell Brennan Keane is one of Ireland's leading accountancy firms. |
The annual drip feed
The Finance Bill has provided some welcome reforms for the financial services sector. Unfortunately the process of creating the tax regime the industry requires was not completed. It would be tremendous if Government could make a commitment to deal with these matters in the next Finance Bill. |
Debt factoring and VAT - case
The High Court has ruled on the the treatment of debt factoring in the context of VAT. It has rejected a Revenue argument that non-recourse factoring where the vendor of the debts collected the debts on an outsourced basis on behalf of the factor was a supply of exempt services for VAT purposes and confirmed that it was a taxable supply. |
Overseas investment by individuals
An anti avoidance provision, section 806, which was originally aimed at preventing tax avoidance arising from the diversion of income by resident individuals to foreign entities, has become an obstacle to foreign investment in a way not originally envisaged. It is poorly aligned with EU law and with other Irish tax measures impacting cross border investment.These measures ignore the need for major investment projects to retain earnings to be viable in the long term. Section 806 together with the general anti avoidance provision, section 811, it is part of a tendency to permit taxation by Revenue discretion , rather than by clear legal provisions. |
A Day in the Life: Donal Courtney, Chief Financial Officer of Capmark Europe Bank and International Rugby Referee
Donal Courtney is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has been chief financial officer of Capmark Europe Bank for the last five years. Capmark is a fully regulated bank by the Irish Financial Regulator and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capmark Finance Group Inc, a US based commercial property finance company. The Irish bank is focused on providing finance to the commercial property industry in Europe by the provision of debt and equity products and is a significant issuer of commercial mortgage backed securities(CMBS). Donal is also an international rugby referee in his spare time, and has officiated at Six Nations', European Cup and Magners' league level. |
Regulation as a competitive force?
The dynamic chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), John Tiner, was in Dublin on February 15th to talk about competitiveness in regulation at the Institute of European Affairs. |
People on the move
People on the move in Ireland's IFS sector |
