Welcome to the Business Post’s Live News section. We’re here all day to keep you up to date on developments in business, tech and current affairs.
5.00 – Controversial ex-Fianna Fáil minister Ivor Callely makes €173,000 settlement with Revenue
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Post Reporter
Ivor Callely, the former Fianna Fáil junior minister, has made a settlement of nearly €173,000 with Revenue after an audit found an under-declaration of debt at his Dublin motor dealership.
Callely, who resigned from Fianna Fáil in 2010 due to an expenses scandal and was later jailed for fraud, was named on a list of tax defaulters published on Tuesday.
The settlement includes some €111,478 in taxes, as well as €28,114 in interest and €33,344 in penalties. Overall, it is worth €172,937.
4.45 – Home security company Phonewatch increases profits by 5 per cent in 2023
Turnover at home security company, Phonewatch, increased by 5 per cent to €59.5 million in 2023.
The company’s gross profit also grew marginally, rising almost 5 per cent from €50.5 million in 2022 to €52.9 million in 2023.
A reduction in distribution costs over the year resulted in a 38 per cent increase in operating profits, jumping from €15.6 million in 2022 to €21.5 million in 2023.
Emma Hanrahan has the accounts.
4.30 – Iseq closes in the green
The Iseq All Share Index finished +73 points (0.76 per cent) on previous close today.
Two of the main Irish banks, Bank of Ireland and AIB, finished in the green at close of day. Meanwhile, Permanent TSB ended today in the red.
4.15 – Ireland pushing for vape tax rules EU-wide by next year
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PATRICK T. FALLON
Ireland is one of 16 countries pressing for EU-wide rules on how to tax vapes ahead of the introduction of its own vape tax.
The department of finance and its counterparts from 15 other countries — including France and Germany — say current EU rules mean vapes can’t be taxed like traditional cigarettes, so national rules have sprung up to compensate.
Sarah Collins reports from Brussels.
4.00 – Eoin Hayes suspended by Soc Dems with immediate effect
Newly elected Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes has been suspended from the Social Democrats parliamentary party with immediate effect.
Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes had earlier disclosed that he sold his shares in the software company Palantir for just under €200,000, a month after being elected to Dublin City Council.
Hayes has faced questions over his divestment of shares in the company which supplies technology to the Israeli Defence Forces.
3.45 – EV sales decline while sales of hybrid cars increased in 2024
The Irish car market has experienced significant shifts in 2024, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Electric vehicles (EVs) saw a decline in popularity, with only 15 per cent of new cars licensed being electric, compared to 19 per cent the previous year. Conversely, hybrid vehicles are on the rise, with the number of new petrol and electric hybrid cars increasing by 32 per cent, from 17,943 in 2023 to 23,752 in 2024.
The total number of new private cars licensed in the first 11 months of 2024 marginally decreased compared to the same period in 2023, from 116,360 to 115,639.
3.30 – PTSB offers exit packages to staff across all levels of bank
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Fergal Phillips
PTSB has launched a voluntary redundancy scheme targeting workers at all levels of the bank.
The lender on Tuesday told staff it was extending an earlier voluntary severance scheme – which was aimed at senior managers – to employees at all levels of the bank. It’s not clear how many roles are being targeted.
The news has been condemned by the Financial Services Union, which said it was “upsetting” for staff that the programme was announced just before Christmas.
3.15 – Sales drop 15 per cent at Adidas Ireland with wholesale and e-commerce sales declining
Revenues at the Irish arm of Adidas have fallen from €61.5 million to €52.1 million – a 15 per cent drop – after a sharp fall in its wholesale and e-commerce sales.
Recently filed accounts for Adidas Ireland said the firm’s wholesale business declined in sales by €9.3 million to the year-ending December 31.
3.00 – US third-quarter unit labour costs revised sharply lower
US unit labour costs grew far less than initially thought in the third quarter, pointing to a still favourable inflation outlook even though price increases have not moderated much in recent months.
Unit labour costs – the price of labour per single unit of output – increased at a 0.8 per cent annualised rate last quarter, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said today.
2.52 – Trump tariffs could speed up ECB rate cuts
Donald Trump’s tariff proposals could force a more aggressive pace of rate cuts from the European Central Bank, analysts at the Bank of America have said.
In a briefing on Tuesday, the US banking giant echoed other analysts in predicting an ECB rate cut of 0.25 percentage points this week, with the expectation that a series of quarter percentage point cuts at each subsequent meeting will bring the rate to 1.5 per cent by next September.
Dominic McGrath has the full story
2.35 – US stocks rise as traders await inflation report
US stock futures inched higher as traders waited to see if a key inflation report will reinforce expectations of an interest-rate cut this month from the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 opened in the green, up 0.09 per cent Tuesday morning in the US, while the Nasdaq 100 was up 0.23 per cent in early trading.
2.23 – Wall Street’s complex debt bonanza hits fastest pace since 2007
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lucky-photographer
Investors’ “relentless” appetite for juicy returns has triggered the biggest boom on Wall Street in complex financial products since the lead-up to the global financial crisis in 2007.
The global volume of structured finance transactions has hit $380 billion this year, according to data from LSEG, which excludes real estate and traditional corporate loans.
Read more on the Financial Times
2.08 – Revenues up €100m at National Broadband Ireland parent
Revenues at the holding company behind National Broadband Ireland (NBI) surged by more than €100 million as the firm outpaced previously set targets, new company accounts show.
Filed consolidated accounts for Metallah DAC, the central holding company for NBI, show that the group booked revenues of €365 million in 2023, a 44 per cent bump on the €253 million booked in 2022.
1.49 – OpenAI-backed language tutor start-up doubles value to $1bn
Speak, a startup using artificial intelligence to help people learn languages, is now worth $1 billion in a new funding round, doubling its valuation from six months ago.
The company is set to announce Tuesday that it has raised $78 million led by venture capital firm Accel. Existing investors including the OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator also participated. Speak has raised $162 million to date, the company said.
Read the full story on Bloomberg
1.34 – Global airline industry profit to rise to €35bn next year
Net profits for the global airline industry in 2025 are expected to be $36.6 billion (€35 billion) – an improvement from the expected $31.5 billion net profit in 2024.
Net profit margin for the industry next year is expected to be 3.6 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) financial outlook for the global airline industry in 2025.
1.15 – Shell, Greenpeace settle lawsuit over vessel boarding
Shell and Greenpeace reached an out-of-court settlement over a legal dispute that centered on climate activists boarding and occupying a Shell offshore vessel in the UK North Sea for 13 days.
The London-based oil giant was claiming damages from Greenpeace in response to the 2023 protest. Shell said it was seeking about $900,000, while Greenpeace said it had been facing as much as $11 million in damages and costs from the suit.
12.56 – OpenAI rolls out Sora to public, but not in Europe
OpenAI is rolling out an artificial intelligence system called Sora that can generate realistic-looking videos from text prompts, nearly 10 months after the start-up first publicly previewed the technology.
Sora will be available to paid users of chatbot ChatGPT in the US and other markets, the company said in a livestreamed presentation. The new version of the tool will be able to churn out videos up to 20 seconds in length and offer multiple variations of those clips.
12.41 – TikTok launches shop feature in Ireland
TikTok has announced a new way for Irish users to discover and shop directly from Irish sellers with the introduction of TikTok Shop in Ireland, in partnership with Guaranteed Irish.
Open exclusively to businesses and shoppers based in Ireland, TikTok shop will bring shoppable videos and live shopping directly to users’ ‘For You’ feeds, giving local Irish sellers and Irish creators the ability to sell directly through shoppable content on the app.
12.23 – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to start government formation today
Negotiation talks between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will begin today following a meeting between Micheál Martin and Simon Harris on Monday.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said they had “positive, constructive engagement” on Monday where they agreed “the need for stable government, underpinned by mutual respect”.
The two leaders cited the need for a “clear policy direction for the next five years [to] deliver for the Irish people in the face of great challenges”.
12.05 – NTMA taps experts from Norway to New Zealand for new sovereign wealth funds
The National Treasury Management Agency has tapped investment veterans from Norway to New Zealand to pull together a six-member investment committee for the State’s two new sovereign wealth funds.
Knut Kjaer, the founding chief executive of Norges Investment Bank Investment Management, which oversees Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, and Matt Winerary, chair of the New Zealand asset manager FirstCape Group will be among the team tasked with drawing up an investment strategy for the fledgling Irish funds which have been set up to capture and invest windfall tax revenues.
11.55 – Cadbury-owner Mondelez exploring Hershey deal
Cadbury-parent Mondelez International is exploring the acquisition of chocolate maker Hershey, Bloomberg News has reported, citing people familiar with the matter, in what would create one of the world’s largest confectioners.
Shares of Hershey, which has a market capitalisation of about $35 billion, rose as much as 19 per cent to $208.03, while those of Mondelez were down about 4 per cent in trading.
Mondelez, which is valued at around $84 billion, has made a preliminary approach about a possible combination, Bloomberg reported, adding that deliberations were in the early stages and there was no certainty that discussions would lead to a deal.
11.40 – Pound hits highest versus euro since 2022
The pound rose to its strongest level against the euro in over two and a half years, boosted by bets the Bank of England will cut interest rates less aggressively than the European Central Bank.
Sterling strengthened as much as 0.3 per cent to 82.50 pence per euro on Tuesday, a level last seen in April 2022. It also gained against the dollar, outperforming most of its Group-of-10 currency peers to trade at $1.2758.
11.25 – Hvivo signs £11.5m contract with ‘global pharma client’
Hvivo, the Irish founded clinical trials firm, has signed an £11.5 million (€13.9 million) repeat contract with “a top-tier global pharmaceutical client” and confirmed its financial guidance for the current year.
The firm, which specialises in testing infectious and respiratory disease products, said it struck a deal with the client to test an antiviral candidate using its “respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) human challenge study model”.
Hvivo added that revenue from this contract is expected to be recognised across 2025 and 2026.
11.16 – Xi Jinping says China will remain world’s ‘growth engine’
Xi Jinping has pledged that China will meet its ambitious GDP growth target of 5 per cent this year and remain the engine of global economic expansion as Beijing steps up efforts to boost flagging investor confidence.
The Chinese president’s comments came a day after the country’s leaders eased their monetary policy stance for the first time in 14 years in a bid to tackle entrenched weak consumption and deflationary pressures in the world’s second-largest economy.
11.01 – Global airlines see growth in 2025 despite supply chain issues
Global airlines on Tuesday raised their profit forecast for 2025 compared to the prior year, projecting industry-wide revenues at more than a trillion dollars for the first time and a record 5.2 billion passengers globally despite ongoing supply chain woes.
Airlines around the world have seen their growth hampered by difficulties at planemakers Boeing and Airbus which have delayed jet deliveries.
10.42 – Wind farms provided over a third of Ireland’s electricity in 2024
More than a quarter of Ireland’s power came from wind farms last month with the renewable energy meeting 32 per cent of Ireland’s electricity demand over the first 11 months of 2024.
This is according to the latest monthly wind energy report from Wind Energy Ireland, which revealed that despite a drop in wind power generation compared to previous Novembers, strong winds during the second half of last month resulted in wind farms providing 29 per cent of Ireland’s clean electricity.
Solar power and other renewables accounted for the additional three per cent of clean electricity produced in 2024.
10.27 – EU competition chief signals rules overhaul
The new EU competition chief said on Tuesday that the bloc needs to reform its competition rules to take into account “innovation and future markets”, as Brussels seeks ways to remain competitive.
“European merger and antitrust policies are key tools to keep markets fair. And already today, when we assess merger and antitrust cases, we take innovation, resilience, and sustainability into account,” said Teresa Ribera in a speech at a conference in Brussels.
Full report on the Financial Times
10.10 – Dublin Airport set for 1.4m passengers this Christmas
Dublin Airport is set to welcome 1.4 million passengers this Christmas.
Welcoming the passengers in Dublin will be the airport’s biggest ever festive entertainment programme with dozens of local choirs and musical acts lined up to perform in the terminals, according to DAA.
While the Christmas period will be busy at Dublin Airport, numbers travelling will be more subdued than normal due to the impact of the passenger cap, the commercial semi-state company said.
Ellie Donnelly has more on this
9.55 – Ashtead to move primary listing to US in blow to London
Construction equipment rental company Ashtead Group Plc delivered the latest setback to the UK stock market as it proposed moving its primary listing from London to the US.
The US is “the natural long-term listing venue for the group,” according to a statement from Ashtead, which reports in dollars and gets almost all its operating profit from North America.
9.40 – Amazon announces new country manager ahead of Irish site launch
Alison Dunn
Dublin-born Alison Dunn has been announced as Amazon’s country manager for Ireland.
Dunn has worked with Amazon for almost a decade and has been appointed as country manager for Amazon’s retail business in Ireland as it prepares to open its virtual doors.
At Amazon, Dunn worked across a variety of roles in retail including vendor services, marketing, product management, and customer experience.
Emma Hanrahan has the full story
9.25 – Irish markets update
The Iseq All Share is trading in the green this morning, up 0.43 per cent since market open.
Leading the gains were shares in Origin Enterprises and Irish Continental Group, followed by Bank of Ireland and Kerry Group.
Meanwhile, Corre Energy and Ryanair shares were down.
9.15 – Insurance CEO shooting suspect charged with murder in New York
A 26-year-old man has been charged with murder over last week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City.
Luigi Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald’s in the town of Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday after a customer at the fast-food restaurant recognised him, according to media reports.
9.00 – Stellantis, CATL invest up to €4.1bn in EU battery plant
Stellantis and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology plan to invest as much as €4.1 billion to build a new plant in Spain for electric-vehicle batteries.
The factory in Zaragoza will start producing lithium-iron phosphate batteries — also known as LFP – by the end of 2026, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
8.41 – Sherry FitzGerald CEO to step down
Steven McKenna is stepping down as chief executive of Sherry FitzGerald Group.
In a post on LinkedIn, McKenna said he would leave the firm at the end of next February to explore “new opportunities.”
McKenna, who has been with Ireland’s largest estate agent since 2008, became chief executive officer in July 2017, prior to which he had served as the company’s chief financial officer since January 2012.
Ellie Donnelly has the full report
8.23 – Boeing restarts 737 Max production
Boeing restarted production of its best-selling 737 Max jetliner last week, about a month after the end of a seven-week strike by 33,000 factory workers, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Getting the 737 Max production line moving again is essential to the heavily debt-burdened planemaker’s recovery, and Boeing has about 4,200 orders for the jetliner from airlines eager to meet growing global demand for air travel.
8.08 – Bord na Móna nears sale of recycling business
Bord na Móna is believed to be close to finalising a deal to sell its waste management business, according to a report in the Irish Times.
Bord na Móna’s recycling division is the last publicly owned waste company.
Bord na Móna Recycling operates household and commercial waste collection in Leinster and north Munster.
Its recycling division now has about 135,000 residential and commercial customers and a huge landfill in Kildare.
7.52 – 70% of manufacturing firms positive about future
Sharon Higgins, executive director of membership and sectors at Ibec.
Photo by
Naoise Culhane
A new report from Ibec has found that approximately 70 per cent of companies in the manufacturing sector have a positive outlook.
However, challenges persist, particularly rising operational costs related to wages, raw materials, and energy, the lobby group’s 2024 Manufacturing in Ireland Report,“Facing Forward: Manufacturing Confidence Amidst Evolving Challenges”, has revealed.
Despite these hurdles, many manufacturers expect improvements in productivity and profitability.
Ellie Donnelly has the full report
7.37 – Irish-led Cosimo targets $25m for digital asset expansion
Cosimo Ventures, a Dublin and Boston-headquartered digital assets-focused investment firm, is in advanced talks to raise $25 million in a new financing led by Irishman Des Mac Intyre, a former leading senior executive at BNY Mellon.
Ciaran Hynes, one of Cosimo’s founders, said the financing comes amid “huge interest in digital assets” following the re-election of Donald Trump as US president.
The fundraise also comes as the firm is rebranding to Cosimo Digital in recognition of it expansion into being a full digital asset management and service provider.
Charlie Taylor has the full report
7.22 – State must pay €2.8m to pension fund in landmark ruling
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RollingNews.ie
The state must pay €2.8 million into a liquidated company’s workers’ pension scheme following a landmark ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Kieran Wallace, liquidator of Dublin-based Protim Abrasives Limited, recently appealed to the commission to overturn a Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment refusal to pay more than €6 million into the company’s pension scheme.
7.10 – Good morning
Good morning from the Business Post.
Vish Gain here with you today to keep you up-to-date on all the latest news as it happens.
Kick off this Tuesday morning with Emma Hanrahan’s report on why the current trajectory of data centre energy growth in Ireland is “not compatible” with Ireland’s legally binding carbon budgets a professor in energy systems has warned.
Hannah Daly, author of the report and professor at University College Cork, said that the current state policy around data centres was just diverting renewable energy to serve the industry’s growth, instead of reducing the national use of fossil fuels.