Affairs, Business Briefs, 7 December 2020
IT LOOKS like an eventful end of 2020 is in store for solicitor-turned-property-developer Noel Smyth, with a number of his businesses the subject of creditors meetings next week.
Dealmaker Smyth (who was Ben Dunne’s legal eagle when the walls came crashing down around Squire Haughey) is probably best known these days for his takeover of the Arnotts retail group, albeit essentially a Dublin property play on his part.
Affairs, Business Briefs, 4 December 2020
A FEW weeks ago the Irish Times awarded the minted CEO of building materials giant Kingspan, Gene Murtagh, its ‘Business Person of the Month’ accolade.
At the time the gong was handed out at the start of October this year, Kingspan shares were trading at around €77.50, having risen by a dizzying 93% since a pandemic-related low in March this year.
Business Briefs, 20 February 2020
THE STINK associated with the sudden closure of John Farrell’s Luna restaurant on Drury St last year (see The Phoenix, 26/07/19) has yet to dissipate, judging from the tenor of commentators online. Though the swanky new wine bar that has opened nearby, Amy Austin, is under separate ownership (Mari Frisby and Francis Frisby are listed… Read more »
Business Briefs, 27 January 2020
THE SURPRISE stepping down on December 9 of Tullow Oil’s relatively recently appointed (April 2017) CEO, Paul McDade, and the equally sudden resignation of Angus McCoss, Tullow’s exploration director, shocked the market, driving the company’s shares down a whopping 70%. Not surprisingly, however, the market has overdone its reaction, with Tullow’s current 70c share price… Read more »
Business Briefs, Finance, 23 January 2020
A READING of Greencore’s 2019 annual report could suggest a highly successful business that claims to be focusing on “sustained growth and returns from an industry-leading UK business”. It is headed up by Paddy Coveney, whose take-home package was a hefty €2.35m. Although Greencore has suffered a series of setbacks, the market appears to be… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, 29 October 2019
IT HAS never been explained why former Aryzta CEO Owen Killian bought a minority 47.8% stake in French frozen foods retailer Picard, for a huge €447m in August 2015, given that this acquisition made no strategic sense for the group, which has no retailing skills or knowledge. The deal proved to be sorely ill-advised, with… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, Media, 25 October 2019
Earlier this month, RTÉ’s website ran a scoop, headlined, ‘Toyota to drop petrol versions of Corolla and C-HR’. Motoring editor Donal Byrne explained that the Japanese manufacturing giant expects 92% of its cars to be “fully hybrid by the end of next year”. Toyota Ireland’s CEO, Steve Tormey, called it “a brave move given the… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, 24 October 2019
NEWS THAT MOLEX, the US electronics company owned by Koch Industries, is to shut its doors in Shannon comes as a most unwelcome echo of the day when Dell called time in Limerick ten years ago. Labour TD, Jan O’Sullivan, has said that “these workers have become collateral damage in the current trade war between… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, 21 October 2019
ALTHOUGH SHE is now based in sunny California, Danielle Meagher (formerly ‘Dr Botox’) continues to create waves this side of the Atlantic. Now known as Danielle Collins, the dentist-turned-beautician-turned-actor is involved in a couple of legal spats, in both Dublin and Belfast. Earlier this year, Danielle found herself on the end of a judgment for… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, 15 October 2019
THE BUDGET was bad news for Helen Dixon whose office received only a meagre increase in resources for 2020. Paschal Donohoe presented this year’s budget as totem of responsibility but are government setting themselves up for yet more data protection trouble? Commissioner Helen Dixon responded on Wednesday last by saying that “the DPC is disappointed… Read more »
Affairs, Business Briefs, Finance, 9 October 2019
ONLOOKERS were no doubt astonished by the revelation in Paschal Donohoe’s budget speech that vulture funds “have engaged in aggressive behaviour to avoid tax”. As well as promising to introduce new “anti-avoidance measures”, the finance minister announced that his officials will “intensely scrutinise activities in the Irish Real Estate Funds (IREF) regime over the coming… Read more »
Business Briefs, 22 August 2019
IT IS a reflection of his overwhelming influence in Ryanair that the end of the runway is not yet in sight for Mick O’Leary. His original modus operandi was based solely around breaking up the duopoly Aer Lingus and British Airways held in the 1980s, but this is no longer relevant. Ryanair is now the… Read more »
Business Briefs, 5 July 2019
DUBLIN tax accountant Jasper Coyle could do with taking some of his own advice. Goldhawk spotted that the Revenue had recently whacked the Sandymount number cruncher with a hefty €488,000 judgment. Coyle has an impressive CV, having spent the best part of 50 years in the industry. He is a member of the Irish Taxation… Read more »
Business Briefs, 5 July 2019
SPARE a thought for Meath auctioneer Martin Shortt, who was recently given short shrift by Judge Seamus Noonan in the High Court. As a result, Danske Bank secured judgment against Shortt and his wife, Pauline Shortt, for €1.5m on foot of personal guarantees given in relation to the borrowings of their Kildare pub company Blackwood… Read more »
Business Briefs, 1 July 2019
INTERESTING to see that No 44 Belgrave Square in Monkstown, south County Dublin, is on the market with a hefty €2.65m price tag. This is the abode of TV presenter and Sindo favourite Lorraine Keane and musician-cum-radio presenter Peter Devlin. The property was purchased back in 2003 when prices were shooting up, so it is… Read more »
Business Briefs, 28 June 2019
AS A result of an adjournment last week, property speculator extraordinaire Deirdre Foley will have to wait another couple of weeks to hear the outcome of a potentially significant judicial review. Meanwhile, the high flyer has just wound up her D2 Property Management company, but a disastrous sister company remains on life support – for… Read more »
Business Briefs, 27 June 2019
TROUBLE is brewing over the liquidation of one of Dublin restaurateur John Farrell’s operations. Peeved creditors of Super Miss Sue Ltd are unhappy with the company’s choice of liquidator and are on the way to the Four Goldmines to get their own nominee subbed in. Farrell is a well-known operator in the capital behind a… Read more »
Business Briefs, 19 June 2019
GOLDHAWK’S favourite Porsche-driving ‘alpha female’ (as tagged by the UK’s Property Week), Deirdre Foley, will be paying particular interest to Court 25 today when High Court judge Charles Meenan issues his judgment in a controversial case. D2 Private CEO Foley made headlines in 2015, courtesy of the purchase of Clerys department store on Dublin’s O’Connell… Read more »
Business Briefs, 17 June 2019
MORE woe for Giovanni Viscardi and Brian Deery, the owners of Bagots Hutton wine bar on Ormond Quay, D7, which closed temporarily last year. Urban Entertainment Ltd, the trading entity behind the trendy night spot, has been slapped with a judgment by another creditor, this time for just over €2,800. Ally Alpine’s Dawson Street drink… Read more »
Business Briefs, 13 June 2019
CONGRATULATIONS to the board of the Catholic Grandparents Association Ltd (CGA) who have moved to prevent it being struck off the Companies Register for failing to file accounts. The bad news is that, when it comes to the tricky subject of mammon, things could be a little better. The CGA was founded in 2003, by… Read more »
Business Briefs, 11 June 2019
DEVELOPER Pat Crean is making headlines today with news that his Marlet group has offered to sell 36 apartments to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council for a cool €11.8m. The 39-year-old has been making waves on the property scene for a number of years and in 2016 split with his former business partner, Greg Kavangah,… Read more »
Business Briefs, 10 June 2019
THE REVENUE has registered a judgment against a company called Pink Sands Property Investments Ltd, which has form when it comes to this sort of thing. The Pink Sands name evokes images of sunny climes, which is apt given the links of the principal, Maria Fearon, with the United Arab Emirates property market. Pink Sands… Read more »
Business Briefs, 10 June 2019
THE COMPANY that was behind the impressive Carton House estate in Co Kildare – Chockablock Ltd – is to be the subject of a creditors’ meeting next month. The main players here are the Mallaghan family and Carton Development Partnership. The Mallaghans took ownership of Carton House back in 1977 and later joined forces with… Read more »
Business Briefs, 7 June 2019
IN THIS issue, Goldhawk profiles promoter extraordinaire Denis Desmond, who has quite a varied array of investments. While some are connected to MCD’s area of expertise, DD has also found other places to stuff his moolah. The results have been mixed. One venture in a spot of bother is SSV.TV, which was previously known as… Read more »
Business Briefs, 5 June 2019
GAYLE KILLILEA, the estranged wife of Sean ‘The Dunner’ Dunne, has been ordered to fork over more than €18 million in “fraudulent transfers” by a US court. The Connecticut jury concluded that cash and assets were put out of the reach of creditors by the one-time Baron of Ballsbridge just before the former property mogul’s… Read more »
Business Briefs, 2 June 2019
GOLDHAWK was interested to spot that among the casualties in the Thomas Cook Group share meltdown is the pension fund of the Northern Ireland Local Government Office (NILGO), which has been investing heavily in the hapless travel company. Over £1.5bn has been wiped off the share price of Thomas Cook over the last year and… Read more »
Business Briefs, 31 May 2019
THINGS HAVE turned ugly for Beautifi, the beauty technology outfit established by Richard Spence a few years ago to ‘revolutionise’ the salon booking experience. While the company had plans to invade Europe, it has instead collapsed into liquidation. Beautifi was a website that enabled salons with no web presence to handle appointments online. It quickly… Read more »
Business Briefs, 30 May 2019
MORE GOOD news for Goldhawk’s favourite Russian lawyer, Olga Shajaku, who got a good result from the Supreme Court last week, which means her long-running efforts to reverse the awarding of a contract to a competitor have paid off. Earlier this year, Shajaku sent a shot across the bows of Paschal Donohoe’s Department of Public… Read more »
Business Briefs, 21 May 2019
GOLDHAWK NOTES that two companies in the Cari’s Closet retails fashion group are being wound up, with creditors’ meetings due to be held next week for Cari’s Closet Cork Ltd and Cari’s Closet Malahide Ltd. These are part of the high-profile group established by Lisa Duffy. Read more in the latest issue, out now. And… Read more »
Business Briefs, 20 May 2019
THERE WAS more woe for colourful Wexford solicitor Simon Kennedy in the High Court recently concerning his scrap with a bank over an €800,000 debt. It has been a case of all hands on deck for the former legal eagle since being declared bankrupt in the High Court in 2012 and his suspension from practice… Read more »
Business Briefs, 17 May 2019
OVER A decade after details emerged about the huge Ponzi scheme operated by US fraudster Bernie Madoff, a filing in the Companies Office here sheds some light on the current status of Thema International Fund (TIF), the company behind a so-called Irish ‘feeder fund’ established in Dublin to tap wealthy European investors eager to get… Read more »
Business Briefs, 13 May 2019
INTERESTING to see that the Law Society has just registered a judgement against Waterford tech outfit Agenda Computers Ltd, where the principal is one David Smyth. Read more about him in the latest issue.
Business Briefs, 7 May 2019
IS THE apocalypse approaching for Sean Lyons’s troubled company, Doomsday Challenge Ltd? Yet again, the firm is listed to be struck off the Companies Register for failure to file accounts, but it has come back from the brink before. Read more in the latest issue out now. And you can read more about Lyon’s ‘Doomsday… Read more »
Business Briefs, 5 May 2019
GOLDHAWK wasn’t too surprised to see Kildare-based food-processing giant Arrow group on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) latest ‘name and shame’ list. Find out why here.
Business Briefs, 1 May 2019
SPARE A thought for Goldhawk’s old friend David Healy. Yesterday, it emerged that the Cork businessman would be sent to the slammer for burning down his own premises and lodging a false insurance claim. Healy (48), of Tig na Mona, Rathankar, Passage West, Co. Cork, had plead not guilty to arson that caused over… Read more »
Business Briefs, 30 April 2019
ANOTHER chapter in the remarkable legal saga involving Ruth Moram and the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ireland was written in the Court of Appeal recently. The scrap goes back a number of years to when she was ‘disfellowshipped’ – ie shunned – from the church’s congregation in Killarney in 2004. Read more in the latest… Read more »
