Free seminar for businesses
WITH a view to minimising risk in today’s turbulent business environment, IBEC Mid-West has announced plans to host a free seminar about employment disputes and claims for businesses at the Radisson Hotel in Limerick on Thursday, April 15 next at 8.30am.
Mid-West Regional Director Chris O’Donovan said: “Employers are now three times more likely to have an employee take a claim against them. IBEC estimates that the cost to employers of employment rights cases in 2008 was at least €8 million, and the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) recovered over €2.5 million from employers for employees in 2009.
“I encourage employers and members of the business community to attend this event, which will give an insight into how best to manage the rise in employee claims. Businesses will learn how to evaluate the risks associated with an employee’s claim, and even more importantly, will get insights about how to avoid an employee taking a claim in the first place.”
Contact Jennie O’Reilly to confirm your attendance on 01-6051690 or register online at www.ibec.ie/2010_roadshow.
BSkyB ordered to cut its sports prices
BSkyB, the pay for TV group, must make its premium sports channels available to rivals at a more than 20 per cent reduction after a regulatory ruling marking one of the greatest shake ups of the sector.
The British watchdog Ofcom says it aims to give greater choice and lower prices to customers, following a three-year review prompted by complaints from rivals Virgin Media, BT, Top Up TV and the now-closed Setanta, that BSkyB had sought to suppress competition.
BSkyB, which has Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp as its largest shareholder and James Murdoch as its chairman, said it would appeal “the unprecedented and unwarranted intervention”, but it is not clear whether that would prevent the changes from being introduced while the legal case is heard.
BSkyB will have to cut the wholesale rates for its individual Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels by 23.4 per cent, but by just 10.5 per cent for a bundle of Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels, which was better than expected. BIZWORLD
Bank of Ireland posts loss of €2.9bn
Bank of Ireland has reported an underlying pre-tax loss of €2.9bn for the nine months to the end of December, after setting aside more than €4bn for loan losses.
The €4bn included loans which were held for sale to NAMA. Excluding loan losses, the bank’s operating profits fell by 28 per cent to just over €1bn. In a separate statement, the bank said it believed it could raise much of the €2.7bn in new funding it needs from private sources, including existing shareholders.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the bank needed to raise this amount by the end of the year to meet targets set by the Financial Regulator. BIZWORLD
Banks may need up to €32bn for losses
Ireland’s banks could need up to €32 billion just to cover the losses emanating from what Finance Minister Lenihan called the “reckless” lending of the Celtic Tiger years.
He told the Dail on Tuesday that the leaders of Ireland’s banks had “played fast and loose” with the economic interests of this country.
He described the information that had emerged from the banking sector in the course of the Nama process as “truly shocking”.
The first tranche of loans to be transferred from the banks to NAMA will be at the much higher than anticipated rate of 47pc – meaning the banks will have to absorb far greater losses.
NAMA will take on the first 1,200 developer loans at this rate of “haircut” or discount and will take on loans with a total face value of €80 billion.
NAMA will pay AIB €1.88 billion for loans worth €3.3 billion, while it will pay €5 billion for €10 billion of Anglo Irish bank loans. The discount for Irish Nationwide is even bigger, at 58 per cent with figures of 35 per cent for Bank of Ireland and 37 per cent for EBS. BIZWORLD
