Ireland

Opposition politicians and consumer advocates have criticised Ulster Bank for agreeing to sell a €1.4 billion portfolio of distressed Irish home loans to the US investment giant, Cerberus Capital Management. The portfolio, known as Project Scariff, includes about 2,300 owner-occupied home loans, as well as 2,900 buy-to-let mortgages secured on investment properties, The Irish Times reported. The deal is the third such sale by an Irish bank in recent weeks, following similar moves by Permanent TSB and KBC Bank Ireland.

There’ll likely be no cake to celebrate the 10th birthday this month of Irish-Swiss baker Aryzta. It is probably looking to raise some dough. In the week following July 31st, the end of its financial year, about €200 million was wiped off its value, The Irish Times reported. Its shares, mainly traded in Zurich, plummeted by 23 per cent to 11.12 francs (€9.63). By the close of business on Thursday, it was worth less than €840 million against €1.1 billion nine days earlier. That’s roughly a quarter of what it was worth just five months ago.

Ireland’s Henderson family said on Thursday it had agreed to buy around 50 Poundworld stores, having struck a deal with the administrator of the collapsed British discount retailer, Reuters reported. The 335-store Poundworld went into administration in June after its majority owner, the private equity group TPG Capital, failed to find a buyer for the struggling business which had a total workforce of about 5,100. Administrator Deloitte said last month that all Poundworld stores would close by the middle of August.

State-controlled Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) has set up a Dutch company to manage the Russian real estate assets seized from bankrupt tycoon Seán Quinn, The Irish Times reported. Bergkamp Investments BV, whose main activities are listed as renting out real estate and preparing property assets for sale, has taken over managing a portfolio once valued at €500 million.

The Government should invest €22 million in education, training and access to apprenticeships in an effort to halve long-term youth unemployment by the end of 2019, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) said in its pre-budget submission, The Irish Times reported. Young people from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds with limited formal qualifications should have greater access to apprenticeships, while schemes should be developed across the country to “provide supports and address barriers”, the organisation said.

Ryanair has invited pilots’ union representatives to talks in anticipation of a fourth strike at the airline this week, The Irish Times reported. The move came as pilots employed by Ryanair in Germany voted for industrial action in support of a pay claim. Members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) – part of trade union Fórsa – plan a fourth one-day strike on Friday, August 3rd in a dispute over base transfers, promotions, leave and other issues.

Dozens of senior executives at Ireland’s biggest bank have been poached by rivals expanding in Dublin because of Brexit, prompting its chief executive to warn that the country’s stringent pay cap makes it hard to keep them, the Financial Times reported. Bernard Byrne, head of Allied Irish Banks, told the Financial Times that a “mid-teens” percentage of its 200 most senior managers have left since its privatisation last year, many hired by companies that are bulking up in Ireland ahead of Brexit, a list that includes Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup.

Having just two final bidders in the mix for €2.2 billion of non-performing loans (NPL) was probably not what Permanent TSB (PTSB) chief executive Jeremy Masding would have wanted. While any corporate financier would tell you that it’s best to have three parties in the final shake-out to keep everyone honest, PTSB has to make do with US private equity firm Lone Star and hedge fund Elliott Management submitting binding final bids by a deadline on Wednesday evening, The Irish Times reported.

Insolvency and restructuring specialist Duff & Phelps has got permission to build almost 460 apartments on a site once controlled by bubble-era developer John Fleming, The Irish Times reported. An Bord Pleanála has given Duff & Phelps the go-ahead to build 459 dwellings in six five- to 14-storey blocks on Carmanhall Road in Sandyford in south Dublin. The site originally belonged to Tivway, the group led by developer Mr Fleming, which went into receivership with debts of about €1 billion in early 2010 following failed efforts to engineer a rescue.

Ulster Bank is seeking regulatory approval to close a compensation scheme for small companies whose businesses were negatively affected by being put into a controversial restructuring unit during the financial crisis, The Irish Times reported. Sources said the bank is in contact with the Central Bank of Ireland about agreeing a deadline by which customers will have to make a complaint on their treatment by the lender’s now-defunct global restructuring group (GRG).