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.
17.14 – Iseq falls; Euro stocks rise
The Iseq All Share closed in the red on Wednesday, dropping by 0.10 per cent to 9,616.33, as European markets were buoyed by the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates by 25 percentage points.
Budget airline Ryanair had a poor day on the market as the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) took place, with the firm’s share price falling by 3.15 per cent to €15.38.
Across the banks, Permanent TSB saw a 1.21 per cent fall to take its share price to €1.63, while Bank of Ireland (+0.47 per cent) and AIB (+1.13 per cent) both recorded rises on the market.
Insurance company FBD (+4.07 per cent) and mining firm Mincon (+6.97 per cent) saw the biggest rises on the previous day’s trading price.
16.45 – US reports $380 billion budget deficit
The US Treasury on Thursday reported a $380 billion (€344 billion) federal budget deficit for August, a massive shift from the $89 billion surplus in August 2023 that resulted from the reversal of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
The deficit for the first 11 months of the 2024 fiscal year reached $1.897 trillion, a 24 per cent increase from a gap of $1.525 trillion in the year-ago period, as the current year’s interest costs on public debt topped $1 trillion for the first time, a Treasury official said.
16.30 – Analysts react to ECB rate cut
A steady stream of analysis continues to pout in on the ECB rate cut decision.
Here’s what Kate English, economist and head of real estate at Deloitte, has to say:
“It is time though to move the conversation beyond the usual noise when it comes to the ECB interest rate decision announcement. Businesses have accepted that we are in a new environment where interest rates are higher for longer and that we are not returning to rates in the past, so we need to focus on what could have a bigger impact on our economies and business strategies.
“Other significant Irish economic drivers such as borrowings, savings, wage growth, consumer sentiment, housing shortages and global trade dynamics are all important and shouldn’t be overlooked.
“What will be significant over the next while is trade policy and the rise of protectionism and looking at how Ireland’s economy sits against the European backdrop. Let’s talk more about competitiveness, capacity constraints and economic growth models. How will Ireland be competitive? How will Europe be competitive? How do we plan for sustainable growth?”
16.10 – Parnell State pub hits the market
A pub with three separate bars on Dublin’s Parnell Street has hit the market with a guide price of €2.5 million, the Irish Independent reports.
Located beside Cineworld cinema complex, The Wool Shed in Dublin 1 is a substantial two-storey venue which can accommodate over 500 patrons. Estate agents CBRE are handling the private treaty sale on behalf of the owner, Matt Hudson.
The property benefits from the footfall of cinemagoers, sports fans and tourists.
15.55 – Matheson’s new appointments
Law firm Matheson has bolstered its employment, pension and benefits (EPB) group with the appointment of Alice Duffy as partner, with Duffy rejoining the firm after a five year stint that ended in 2019.
Matheson also announced it has hired Rachel Barry and Jennifer Bassett to senior associate positions in the employment division.
15.40 – Revolut boss’ share sell-down
Nik Storonsky, the Revolut boss, sold about $250 million worth of his stake in the company during a secondary share sale that valued the company at $45 billion last month.
Storonsky’s shares comprised between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of the stock that was sold in the roughly $500 million transaction, according to a person familiar with the matter. Still, the transaction also allowed the company to give several thousand other employees liquidity for their stakes, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information.
15.20 – ‘Irish economy is firing on all cylinders’
Analyst reaction the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates is pouring in, with economists pleased with the outcome.
Joe Nellis, an economic advisor to Baker Tilly Ireland, said that while the ECB’s decision was “great news for Irish homeowners and indeed the Irish government as they prepare for a vital pre-election budget next month”.
“Not only will this mean a reduction in mortgage payments, but as we have yet to see a corresponding drop in bank interest rates for savers there is a great sweet spot for consumers,” Nellis said.
“The Irish economy really is firing on all cylinders and leading the rest of the EU.
Read more from Donal MacNamee.
15.00 – State will ‘look to co-operate’ with new British renewable energy company
Photo by
Fergal Phillips
Irish state-owned energy companies could end up jointly investing in projects with GB Energy, a new British renewable energy company that is being set up with £8.3 billion (€9.8 billion) of UK taxpayer funding, according to Eamon Ryan, minister for environment.
Speaking after meeting Ed Miliband, Britain’s energy secretary, Ryan confirmed the Republic “will be looking to co-operate” with GB Energy, which is being set up as part of a manifesto commitment by the new Labour government.
GB Energy will invest in clean energy projects such as offshore wind. Ryan highlighted that ESB, for example, is already an investor in similar energy infrastructure in Britain.
“Collaboration is very common in this sector because the scale of the projects is so large. You don’t do it as a sole operator,” he said.
Read the full story on the Irish Times.
14.45 – US Markets Update
Wall Street’s main indexes were subdued at the open on Thursday.
The S&P 500 fell 0.29 per cent (-16.23) to 5,537.90. The bottom performers included Moderna Inc. which fell 18.91 per cent and Micron Technology Inc. which dropped 6.22 per cent. The main riser in early trading was Kroger Co. which increased 3.83 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index was also in the red at market opening. The index decreased 0.05 per cent (-9.12) to 17,386.41. The main fallers were Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc. and ModivCare Inc. which dropped 58.16 and 62.66 per cent respectively.
The top performer on the market was Tenon Medical Inc. which experienced a significant increase of almost 150 per cent.
14.30 – Dutch digital bank to create 17 jobs in Ireland
Dutch-owned digital bank Bunq announced it will recruit 17 new staff in Ireland as it continues to grow in the market.
The new roles are part of global expansion plan to swell its total headcount by 70%, exceeding 730 staff, by the end of 2024 to accommodate an increasing number of workers that are choosing location-independent careers.
The bank is hiring across all its offices, including its headquarters in Amsterdam and its locations in Dublin, Sofia, Istanbul, Munich, Paris, Madrid, London, and New York City.
Read the full story in the Irish Examiner.
14.15 – Elon Musk’s Space X conducts first commercial spacewalk
Photo by
BRITTA PEDERSEN
Private-citizen astronauts traveling with SpaceX completed the first commercial spacewalk, pushing new boundaries for the Elon Musk-led company.
SpaceX kicked off the spacewalk, a centerpiece on the privately funded spaceflight, shortly after 6 am ET (10 am GMT).
The mission, called Polaris Dawn, marked a milestone for SpaceX, which has aspirations to return humans to the moon and eventually establish a human presence on Mars.
The crew members donned SpaceX-designed and manufactured suits that were previously untested in orbit.
Read more on the Wall Street Journal.
14.00 – Mastercard to buy threat intelligence company Recorded Future for $2.65 billion
Photo by
Damien Eagers Photography
Mastercard has agreed to buy threat intelligence company Recorded Future from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65 billion, the payments company said on Thursday.
The rapid adoption of new technologies has upped the risk of cyber threats, with companies increasingly facing hacking or ransomware attacks. Cyberattacks on U.S. utility companies, for instance, surged 70 per cent in 2024.
Recorded Future, which uses artificial intelligence-powered analytics to identify potential threats, already collaborates with Mastercard on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions when a card is likely compromised.
13.45 – Irish AR start-up raises €1.5 million in funding for US expansion
Irish augmented reality start-up Imvizar has raised €1.5 million in funding to launch its no-code augmented reality creation tool Lureo and support expansion in the US.
The investment includes backing from Delta Partners VC, alongside continued support from former head of Meta Ireland Gareth Lambe, Pigsback founder Michael Dywer, former group chief technology officer of Ooredoo Nigel Byrne and Enterprise Ireland.
Founded by Michael Geurin in 2021, Imvizar creates immersive experiences for tourism and entertainment, bringing characters and environments to life.
Charlie Taylor has the full story.
13.30 – ECB delivers its second rate cut in boost to borrowers
The European Central Bank delivered a second rate cut today, with hopes of more to come in the next few months.
The 0.25 percentage point cut is a boost to borrowers and comes after the ECB had increased rates 10 times up to last September.
The move means the bank’s refinancing rate, from which trackers are priced, comes down to 4 per cent.
Read the full article by Vish Gain here.
13.15 – Boeing strike threat looms as workers vote on contract
U.S. West Coast factory workers will vote on a much-criticized new contract and a possible strike on Thursday, piling pressure on the plane maker as it wrestles with chronic production delays and mounting debt.
A potential strike starting on Friday would be a big early blow to new chief executive Kelly Ortberg, who was brought on last month to restore faith in the plane maker after a door panel blew off a near-new 737 MAX jet in mid-air in January.
Starting from 5 a.m. PT (12.00 pm GMT), roughly 30,000 workers who produce Boeing’s 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets in the Seattle and Portland areas will vote on their first full contract in 16 years.
Polling will close at 6 p.m. PT and the result will be announced this evening, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said. If a strike is sanctioned, it could start at midnight.
Read the full story on Reuters.
13.00 – Household saving rate fell by almost 2 per cent in the second quarter of 2024
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Post Reporter
The household saving rate was 12.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, according to figrues from the Central Statistics Office.
This is a decrease from the 14.6 per cent recorded in the first quarter of the year.
Income fell slightly in the quarter while consumption rose, producing a lower saving rate.
In Q2 2024, before adjusting for seasonality or inflation, households saved €6.6 billion of the total disposable income of €44.1 billion.
Household consumption was €38 billion in Q2 2024, up from €36 billion in the same period last year.
12.45 – AIB outage hits credit card payments
AIB is currently experiencing an outage that won’t allow people make credit card payments through credit card terminals.
“Our AIB Merchant Services are experiencing technical issues that may be impacting merchants’ ability to accept cards and outbound settlement funds,” the company said.
“We have no timeframe at the moment but appreciate the urgency of getting this resolved as soon as possible and our team are working on it.”
Merchant services affect third party credit card terminals such as Clover, which are popular with small businesses as a way to take payments quickly form credit cards.
AIB says that updates on the outage will be provided on its dedicated merchant services web page, Aibms.com.
There have been no complaints about the outage affecting online credit card payments.
Read the developing story on the Irish Independent.
12.30 – Unleaded Petrol clearance volumes for July 2024 higher than last year
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that unleaded petrol clearances were 6.5 per cent higher in the first seven months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, and 6.8 per cent higher when comparing the 12-month rolling period of August 2023-July 2024 with August 2022-July 2023.
Contrarily, autodiesel clearances were 0.5 per cent lower in the first seven months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, and 0.8 per cent lower when comparing the 12-month rolling period of August 2023-July 2024 with August 2022-July 2023.
Clearances are the duty paid on the quantity of oil removed from bonded warehouses and provide a proxy for sales.
Excise clearances of Marked Gas Oil in July 2024 were 24 per cent higher compared with July 2023.
At 30 million litres, clearances of Kerosene in July 2024 were 8 per cent higher compared with the July 2023 figure of 28 million litres.
12.15 – Rent increased 8.1 per cent annually for new tenancies
The standardised average rent has increased by 8.1 per cent for new tenancies nationally and by 5.9 per cent for existing tenancies between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024.
The findings have been revealed in data published by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) in partnership with the ESRI and form part of the quarterly index tracking price developments in the Irish rental market.
New tenancy rents are rising more slowly in Dublin by 6.3 per cent year-on-year, compared with 12.2 per cent outside of the capital.
The index shows that sitting tenants are continuing to pay lower rents than new tenants.
11.45 – Deloitte and Team Ireland renew their partnership
Peter Sherrard, CEO, Olympic Federation of Ireland; Philip Doyle, Olympic medallist and two time Olympian; Harry Goddard, CEO, Deloitte Ireland; Sarah Lavin, Two time Olympian.
Deloitte Ireland and Team Ireland have announced the renewal of their partnership for another four years.
The deal will see the global professional services and consulting network join forces with Team Ireland for the Winter Olympic Games in Italy in 2026 and the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles in July 2028.
Deloitte has approximately 3,000 people in Ireland providing audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries.
The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) s responsible for Team Ireland’s involvement in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the European Games, the Summer and Winter Youth Olympic Games and the Summer and Winter European Youth Olympic Festivals.
11.30 – Inflation eases below 2 per cent for first time since June 2021
The annual rate of inflation eased to 1.7 per cent in August from an annual rate of 2.2 per cent in July, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The CSO said this is the first time since June 2021 that its official measure of annual inflation has been below 2 per cent.
The figures show that the most significant increases in the 12 months to August were seen in restaurants and hotels, with prices there rising by 4.5 per cent due to more expensive drinks and food.
The CSO said that inflation, as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), which strips out mortgage interest costs, eased to 1.1 per cent year-on-year, from 1.5 per cent.
11.15 – Eli Lilly to create 150 jobs in Limerick
Photo by
Cristina Arias
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has announced a further €927 million investment at its facility at Raheen in Limerick, creating a further 150 jobs there.
The company, also known as Lilly, last year announced a similar-sized investment in establishing the manufacturing facility at Raheen.
This facility is dedicated to the production of biologic active ingredients for the company’s portfolio of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, and which is expected to bring employment for 300 people.
The company also spent €726 million on a new facility expansion in Kinsale, which began making diabetes and obesity medicines last year to meet rising demand.
Overall, the company invested over €1.6 billion in Ireland.
11.00 – DAA in fresh planning battle with Fingal County Council over staff parking
DAA, the operator of Dublin Airport, has become embroiled in a fresh planning battle with Fingal County Council over a proposed staff car park.
Last month, the council refused the DAA planning permission to develop a new 950-space car park for staff near the grounds of the airport.
The DAA, which is led by chief executive Kenny Jacobs, has now appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála and criticised the grounds on which Fingal County Council refused the project.
Killian Woods has the full story.
10.45 – Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris drives nearly 338,000 users to government voting website
Photo by
Jo Hale
Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in a Tuesday night Instagram post has driven at least 337,826 visitors to Vote.gov a government website that directs users to state-specific voting information, a spokesperson for the U.S. General Services Administration told CNBC on Wednesday.
Swift released her endorsement minutes after the conclusion of the first debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
In her Instagram endorsement, the musical superstar pointed her followers to the Vote.gov website, and encouraged them to do their own research and get registered to vote early.
10.30 – Goldman Sachs to earn $92 million from sale of Pringles owner
Goldman Sachs is set to earn $92 million from its work advising Pringles and Pop-Tarts maker Kellanova on its $36 billion sale to Mars, one of Wall Street’s biggest M&A paydays in recent years.
The fee for Goldman, disclosed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, underscores burgeoning optimism on Wall Street that deal activity is picking up after a lacklustre two years. Lazard, which advised Kellanova’s board of directors on the deal, is set to earn $10 million. The vast majority of both fees is dependent on the deal successfully closing.
The fee is enormous, even by Wall Street standards, especially given the size of the transaction.
Mars’s $36bn deal for Kellanova is the largest US merger announced this year. But bigger deals agreed last year nevertheless yielded lower fees for the banks involved.
Read the full article on the Financial Times.
10.15 – Regulator opens review of Shein, Temu, TikTok and more
The media regulator Coimisiún na Meán has opened a review of online platforms’ amid concerns that people are having difficulty reporting illegal content.
An Coimisiún has issued formal requests for information to a range of platforms for further details on their approach to reporting options for illegal content and points of contact for users.
The companies that have been contacted are TikTok, X, YouTube, Meta, LinkedIn, Temu, Pinterest, Shein, Etsy, Dropbox, Hostelworld and Tumblr.
10.00 – Fevertree Drinks cuts growth forecasts
Fevertree Drinks has cut its annual revenue growth forecast as unexpected wet weather at the start of its key summer season dampened sales for the British beverage maker, sending its shares down 8.6 per cent.
Shares of the London-listed company fell to a more than eight-year low of 788 pence. They have lost about 14 per cent of their value since the start of this year.
09.45 – Watt Footprint secures a €7 million investment from Davy EIIS Fund
Paul O’Reilly, chairman and co-founder of Watt Footprint, Sinead Heaney, director of BES Management DAC and Paul Mahon, chief executive and co-founder of Watt Footprint.
Photo by
Colin Judge
Davy and BDO have pumped €7 million into Watt Footprint, the Westmeath energy-efficiency firm, through joint investment vehicle BES Management.
Watt Footprint, which has doubled its revenues each year since it was founded in 2020, carries out energy audits and upgrades on behalf of its clients. The company’s software then allows firms to analyse and manage the savings achieved.
With the fresh investment by BES management, which has put €225 million into 195 SMEs over the last 25 years, Watt Footprint hopes to more than double its headcount from 20 to 45 by the end of the year.
The company has opened new offices in London and Dubai, with further plans to expand into the US and EU.
Eoin O’Hare has the full story.
09.30 – EU hits renewable electricity milestone
The EU’s latest State of the Energy Union report shows that for the first half of 2024, renewable energy such as solar and wind met 50 per cent of the electricity demand.
The report also found that the EU’s gas demand dropped by 138 billion cubic metres between August 2022 and May 2024.
Geopolitical issues played a role in changing gas demand – the report says the share of Russian gas in EU imports dropped from 45 per cent in 2021 to 18 per cent by June 2024, while imports from other countries including Norway and the US have increased.
The EU also reported some success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The bloc’s emissions fell by 32.5 per cent from 1990 and 2022.
However, the report noted that efforts in the renewable energy sector will need to be stepped up to meet the EU’s goal of reducing energy consumption by 11.7 per cent by 2030.
Read the full article on Silicon Republic.
09.15 – Ryanair expects a 5 to 10 per cent drop in average fares
Photo by
Horacio Villalobos
Michael O’Leary expects average fares to be 5 per cent to 10 per cent lower than last year for the remainder of this year.
The chief executive shared his prediction with reporters before the Irish airline’s annual meeting on Thursday.
Ryanair has faced difficulties with Boeing deliveries and the recently announced annual 32 million passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
O’Leary met with the junior minister at the department of transport on Wednesday in an attempt to pressure the government into raising the cap, however, the chief executive said the meeting “was not productive”.
Additional reporting – Reuters
09.00 – UK regulator delays new capital regime for banks to 2026
Photo by
Bloomberg Creative Photos
The Bank of England has watered down proposals for tougher capital rules for UK banks and delayed the introduction of the new regime until the start of 2026.
The bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority said that the changes include easing capital requirements on small business lending, mortgages, trade finance and infrastructure loans.
As a result, the key capital thresholds for the main banks would be “virtually unchanged”, rising less than 1 per cent, the PRA said. That is a reduction from its earlier estimate of a 3 per cent increase.
The revised plans are part of the Basel III regime, reforms set out in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that required certain banks to have a larger cushion of equity to absorb unexpected losses in the event of financial stress.
Read the full article on the Financial Times.
08.45 – A new championship links golf course is in the planning in Co. Antrim
Colin Johnston, managing director of Galgorm Collection
Photo by
stephen davison
The Galgorm Collection, the hospitality company behind the luxury hotel resort of the same name, is behind the bid for a major new tourism development in Glenariffe in the foothills of the Glens of Antrim.
It’s understood negotiations are ongoing with around 30 landowners, focused on between 200 and 300 acres.
Subject to the completion of land deals and planning approval, the hotel group hopes to have the links course up and operational by the time the Ryder Cup returns to Ireland in 2027.
Read the full story on the Irish News.
08.30 – Almost half of workers report suffering from financial stress
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PeopleImages
44 per cent of employees who responded to a recent survey said they are suffering from financial stress.
The study by payroll and HR provider SD Worx found that a third of employees believe their organisation shows no concern for their financial wellbeing.
Just over 4-in-10 of those surveyed believe that their employer did not adequately compensate them for inflation last year, while 44 per cent said that they would like to be able to request a salary advance.
More than a quarter of respondents said they are dissatisfied with their complete reward package, which includes their salary, bonus, and other fringe benefits such as health insurance.
Read the full story on the Irish Times.
08.15 – Irish Market Update
The Iseq All Share opened in the green this morning, up 1.23 per cent (+118.48) to 9,744.73.
The top performers on the market in early trading were Greencoat Renewables and Kingspan which grew by 0.42 and 0.58 per cent respectively. Greencoat increased to €0.95 per share while Kingspan jumped to €78.60 per share.
The main faller in the morning was Origin which dropped 0.74 per cent (-0.025) to €3.33 per share.
08.00 – European Central Bank expected to further cut interest rates
Photo by
WPA Pool
The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to announce interest rate cuts today, ahead of anticipated cuts by the Federal Reserve next week.
Christine Lagarde, the president of the ECB, is expected to announce a cut of 25 basis points following a meeting of the regulator’s governing council in Frankfurt.
In July, the ECB followed June’s landmark cut, its first such move since 2019, by leaving interest rates unchanged at 3.75 per cent.
Thursday’s ECB meeting comes ahead of the hotly-anticipated gathering of the Fed on September 18, where the US regulator is expected to cut its key lending rate from a two-decade high of around 5.3 per cent.
Read the full article by Eoin O’Hare here.
07.45 – Irish data watchdog launches inquiry into Google AI model
Photo by
Chesnot
The Irish Data Protection Commission has opened an inquiry into whether Google complied with EU privacy laws in the development of one of its artificial intelligence models.
The DPC said the cross-border statutory inquiry into Google questions whether the search engine complied with necessary obligations as part of a Data Protection Impact Assessment prior to engaging in the processing of the personal data of EU citizens associated with the development of its foundational AI Model, Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2).
The DPC said it is working with other regulators in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).
07.30 – €500 million investment to create 1,000 jobs at Blackrock Health
Blackrock Health Group has announced it is to create 1,000 jobs in Dublin and Galway over the next five years.
This is a result of a €500 million investment by the group to expand its operations.
The funds will be allocated to the Blackrock and Hermitage Clinics in Dublin and the Galway Clinic.The group also owns the Limerick Clinic.
Among the new facilities will be 187 beds, 77 of which will be in-patient with the other 110 ambulatory care. There will also be the addition of 14 new operating theatres, six new cardiac cath labs and a cancer centre.
Vish Gain has the full story here.
07.15 – Asian Market Update
This morning Asian equity markets are rallying for the first time this week and being fuelled by a tech rally.
The Nikkei (+2.77 per cent) is leading gains and halting a seven-day losing streak as the yen’s strengthening has paused while the Hang Seng (+1.07 per cent) is also trading higher.
Elsewhere, Chinese stocks have reversed initial gains with the CSI (-0.14 per cent) and the Shanghai Composite (-0.05 per cent) both seeing small losses.
Early morning data showed that Japan’s PPI rose 2.5 per cent year on year in August, less than the expected and down from the 3 per cent gain reported the previous month.
Meanwhile, the Japanese yen (-0.18 per cent) is losing ground against the dollar, trading at 142.62, even with BOJ board member Naoki Tamura commenting that the bank needs to raise interest rates to at least 1 per cent to avoid inflationary risks.
07.00 – Good morning
Good morning from the Business Post team. Emma Hanrahan here, keeping you up to speed today with all the biggest news in the world of business, finance and politics.
Leading businesspost.ie this morning is Cónal Thomas’ piece about the chief executive of Bank of Ireland, who strongly criticised what he described as the “discriminatory” bank levy applied to bailed out lenders, accusing the government of last year unfairly changing the rules of the crisis-era measure. Read the full piece here.
Also, an article by Daniel Murray on how Ireland is currently on track for its first carbon budget. Read the full article here.