Ireland

A petition to secure High Court protection for a chocolate food products company was prepared in secret from its board, the High Court was told, The Irish Times reported. Ina’s Kitchen Desserts is trading, no one is refusing to trade with it, and it also has a plentiful supply of finance to meet its requirements, said Bernard Dunleavy SC for the majority shareholder Starkane. Counsel said Starkane knew nothing of the petition for examinership brought by a director and 10 per cent shareholder Barry Broderick until it was moved.

Irish food group Greencore has announced a £90 million (€101 million) share placing to shore up its balance sheet after it reported an 81 per cent plunge in its annual profit due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Irish Times reported. The Dublin-headquartered company said the recent resurgence of Covid-19 cases across the UK, and the imposition of new restrictions, had “hampered the recovery in demand in food-to-go categories”.

Norwegian Air has asked an Irish court to oversee a restructuring of its massive debt as it seeks to stave off collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic, the carrier said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Norway’s government on Nov. 9 rejected the airline’s plea for another injection of state funds, and the company said the following day it was at risk of having to halt operations in early 2021 unless it got access to more cash. Growing rapidly to become Europe’s third-largest low-cost airline and the biggest foreign carrier serving New York and other major U.S.

Ireland will be the eurozone’s biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit, which threatens to cause an economic “double whammy” on top of the fallout from rising coronavirus infections, the Irish central bank’s governor has warned, the Financial Times reported. Gabriel Makhlouf told the Financial Times that if the UK left the EU without a trade deal at the end of this year, the new tariffs on goods would hit Ireland’s agricultural and food sectors hardest, knocking 2 percentage points off the country’s economic growth next year.  “This whole process is lose-lose,” said Mr Makhlouf.

Overseas tourism revenues are likely to collapse by two-thirds this year as a result of Covid-19, an Oireachtas committee has been told. In 2019 the overseas market brought in €9 billion in revenue; this year it will be closer to €3 billion, The Irish Times reported. Foreign visitors account for 75 per cent of all tourism revenue earned in the State, members were told.

Up to 1,250 Irish businesses have been “recommended” for State-backed coronavirus loans, according to a senior official at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, The Irish Times reported. Declan Hughes, head of the department’s indigenous enterprise, SMEs and entrepreneurship division, said that as of last Friday banks operating the Government’s Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme had recommended 1,250 loans worth €64 million. Mr Hughes told the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment that there had been “very significant interest” in the initiative.

Two Irish landlords of the liquidated Monsoon business have won a High Court challenge in which they claimed their leases to the women’s fashion stores remained in full force here despite a UK creditors arrangement, The Irish Times reported. Apperley Investments Ltd, Tailwind Investments Ltd and Martina Investments Ltd were landlords to the former Monsoon store on Dublin’s Grafton Street. RESAM Cork UC and RESAM Properties Ltd were landlords for the Monsoon store and the Accessorize store, both on Patrick Street, Cork.

Business groups have called for added supports for companies forced to close once again under the Government’s measures to try to suppress Covid-19 in Ireland, warning that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk, The Irish Times reported. Chamber leaders around the country have called on the Government to introduce supports for impacted businesses quickly and to use the time “wisely” to put in place the appropriate infrastructure to support local economies to re-open safely.

Irish households and businesses secured the second-highest level of payment breaks from banks at the height of the coronavirus pandemic across a group of 11 western European countries, according to a report from debt ratings agency DBRS Morningstar, The Irish Times reported. Some 13.4 per cent of Irish loans across the State’s three domestic banks were subject to payment freezes at the end of June, second to Portuguese loans at 21.5 per cent, and almost double the 7 per cent average, the report said. German loans came in at the other end of the scale, at 1.6 per cent.

The High Court has appointed provisional liquidators to two related companies that operate 13 Pamela Scott and Richard Alan retail stores across the Republic, The Irish Times reported. The court heard the companies sought to be liquidated after coming under pressure from landlords, changes to the wage subsidy scheme, a sustained reduction in footfall, and further restrictions expected imminently due to the increasing number of Covid-19 infections.