Brian McKiernan, chief executive of Ireland’s biggest securities firm Davy, resigned after regulators accused the company of a “lack of candor” in dealing with one of the worst scandals to hit Dublin’s stockbroking community in years, Bloomberg News reported. The board has also accepted the resignations of Kyran McLaughlin as a non-executive deputy chairman and Barry Nangle as head of bonds, the Dublin-based firm said in a statement Saturday. Bernard Byrne, deputy CEO, has been appointed interim chief executive.
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Norwegian Air expects its dispute with Boeing over the cancellation of orders for 97 aircraft to be decided in U.S. legal proceedings and not as part of an Irish restructuring process, a lawyer for the airline said on Friday, Reuters reported. Norwegian was given protection from bankruptcy in both Norway and Ireland, where most of its assets are registered, late last year and is aiming to emerge from the process in April with fewer aircraft and less debt. On Friday, the airline indicated to the Irish court that it was seeking to repudiate three aircraft sales contracts with Boeing.
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Irish public finances fell deeper into the red last month as spending on various pandemic-related supports rose and tax receipts fell, the Irish Times reported. The latest exchequer returns, published by the Department of Finance, show the Government’s budget deficit - on a rolling 12-month basis – swelled to just over €14 billion in February. This was fuelled by a combination of falling tax revenues and increased spending on financial supports for impacted workers and businesses.
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FBD said on Friday it estimates that gross claims and expenses arising from a landmark Covid-19 business interruption pubs test case ruling earlier this month will amount to €150 million, the Irish Times reported. The figure includes claims that will ultimately be picked up by reinsurance companies that have shared the risk with FBD. Meanwhile, the Dublin-listed insurer increased provisions for its net exposure to pubs claims to €65 million from €30 million that had been set aside last summer. The charge includes €11 million of expected payments to reinsurers to reinstate protection.
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Ulster Bank executives confirmed on Tuesday that the bank’s 88-strong branch network in Ireland forms part of discussions with Permanent TSB, which is looking to acquire a large part of the exiting bank’s assets, the Irish Times reported. Sources said on Friday that PTSB is in talks to acquire much of Ulster Bank’s €14 billion mortgage book and up to €700 million of small business loans in a deal that could almost double its assets and potentially require a capital injection from the Government. PTSB is 75 percent State-owned.
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Borrowers with higher debt burdens than the current Central Bank of Ireland’s rules allow are more likely to have sought payment breaks during the current crisis, the Irish Central Bank’s deputy governor Sharon Donnery has said, according to a Irish Times report. This was proof that the regulator’s mortgage lending rules had helped the financial sector “absorb rather than amplify the shock of the pandemic”, she said. The Central Bank’s rules curtail consumers to borrowing within strict loan-to-value (LTV) and loan-to-income (LTI) limits.
Ireland’s government said it’s exploring the creation of a so-called third force in banking, should NatWest Group Plc opt to exit the Irish market, Bloomberg News reported. Irish officials have been war gaming the bank’s exit, with one possibility that state-owned Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc might acquire some of Ulster’s loans. AIB Group Plc is also in negotiations on buying some of the assets. NatWest is reviewing Ulster Bank, with a decision set to be announced as soon as Friday.
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Ryanair on Wednesday lost its fight against the state aid granted to rivals including Air France and Sweden’s SAS after a top European court said such schemes were not discriminatory amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. The judgment from the Luxembourg-based General Court is the first to deal with aid measures cleared by the European Commission under easier rules aimed at helping European Union governments prop up companies hit by the health crisis. The court said the French and Swedish schemes were in line with the bloc’s rules.
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Ryanair’s fight against state aid for airlines will put loosened EU rules to the test on Wednesday when the bloc’s second-highest court decides on support offered to Air France and SAS, Reuters reported. Under European Commission state aid rules loosened since the start of the pandemic, EU countries have offered more than 3 trillion euros ($3.65 trillion) in aid to companies in various sectors across the 27-member bloc. In its first judgments on those rules, the Luxembourg-based General Court will assess a French scheme allowing airlines to defer certain aeronautical taxes.
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Businesses say they’re barely coping with the current pared-down regime of Brexit checks on goods shipments to Northern Ireland and want to delay fuller checks due to kick in on April 1, Politico reported. Executives from ports, haulage, logistics and customs clearance firms issued their plea on the eve of Thursday’s meeting between European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič and U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove in London.