A co-founder of the collapsed Bula mine in County Meath has lost a Supreme Court appeal aimed at permitting him to challenge a decision adjudicating him bankrupt over non-payment of a €4.8 million legal costs debt, the Irish Times reported. The High Court granted a petition in March 2018 adjudicating Michael Wymes and another co-founder of Bula, Richard Wood, bankrupt. The two, with Tom Roche senior, established Bula in 1971 to buy a zinc and lead mine near Navan, but it collapsed with substantial debts some years later.
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Gap will close all its 81 stores in Britain and Ireland by the end of September as it increases its focus on online shopping, The New York Times reported. The retailer also plans to shed its 32 locations in France and Italy. “The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping,” Gap said in a statement. The company is in negotiations with Hermione People and Brands, the retail branch of FIB Group, to take over Gap stores in France, while a buyer for the Italy locations is still not certain.
Aer Lingus needs a few hundred million euros in extra liquidity due to COVID-19 disruptions and does not expect the easing of Irish travel curbs next month to provide a significant near term bounce, its new chief executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish airline, which recently announced company-wide layoffs and the closure of one of its main domestic cabin crew bases, is losing more than 1 million euros ($1.19 million) a day, Lynne Embleton told an Irish parliamentary committee.
The Restaurants Association of Ireland and some individual members of the group have applied to the High Court seeking leave to challenge distinctions made between indoor dining in non-hotel commercial restaurants and indoor dining within hotels, the Irish Times reported. The challenge relates to recent regulations signed by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and claims the distinction drawn should be quashed on the basis of “irrationality, lack of proportionality and unjustifiable interference” with restaurateurs’ property and economic rights.
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Representatives of the whiskey and dairy industries have called on the Government to pressure the European Union to recognise Irish products that contain some level of input from Northern Ireland as having EU origin status, the Irish Times reported. When the Brexit transition period ended at the start of the year and the UK officially left the EU, a range of goods deemed to be produced in the Republic lost their EU originating status and – as a result - their access to lower or zero preferential trade tariffs with some markets.
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The liquidator of a Kildare company linked to a Germany property group which collapsed, resulting in losses of up to €107 million for Irish investors, has criticised delays he is experiencing in getting key information as he investigates the firm’s affairs before it was put into wind-up, the Irish Times reported. Hanover-based German Property Group (GPG), formerly known as Dolphin Trust, collapsed last year after taking €1.5 billion from investors in the Republic, the UK, Asia and elsewhere since it was set up by businessman Charles Smethurst in 2008.
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Britain's competition authority said on Wednesday that it was launching enforcement action against Ryanair and British Airways over their failure to offer refunds to passengers who were barred from taking flights under lockdown rules, Reuters reported. During COVID-19 lockdowns across Britain, instead of offering refunds to those legally unable to fly, IAG-owned British Airways (ICAG.L) offered vouchers or rebooking and Ryanair providing the option to rebook.
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Exemptions to mortgage lending rules fell during the Covid-19 pandemic but there was no sign of a deterioration in borrower credit quality, according to a report from the Central Bank of Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Just 13 per cent of new home lending by value was granted an exemption to rules on income multiples and home value in 2020, the regulator found, down from 17 per cent in 2019. The rate of exemptions had been higher than 2019 in the first three months of the year, but there was a sudden drop in exemptions in April as the impact of the first Covid lockdown was felt.
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The Irish Pensions Authority has confirmed that it is investigating potential “pension scheme trustee issues” in relation to the collapse of Hanover-based German Property Group (GPG), which resulted in 1,800 Irish investors losing as much as €107 million, the Irish Times reported. GPG, formerly known as Dolphin Trust, collapsed last year after taking €1.5 billion from investors in the Republic, the UK, Asia and elsewhere since it was set up by businessman Charles Smethurst in 2008.
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Norwegian Air is set to exit its restructuring process next week after raising the 6 billion Norwegian crowns ($714 million) it targeted through the sale of perpetual bonds, new shares and a rights issue, Reuters reported. Financed largely by debt, Norwegian Air grew rapidly, serving routes across Europe and flying to North and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East before the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the budget airline into crisis.
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