REPORT ON AER LINGUS WARNED OF DEPARTURE RISK - The Government was warned six weeks ago that the senior management of Aer Lingus would leave if the company was not properly financed, says the Irish Times.
The paper says a confidential report on the future of the airline prepared by Goldman Sachs - and delivered to the Government in the autumn - predicted that 'the retention of the incumbent management is likely to be put at risk without access to new capital for the company'.
The chief executive of Aer Lingus, Willie Walsh, announced on Tuesday his intention to leave the airline next May along with chief financial officer Brian Dunne and chief operations officer Séamus Kearney.
According to Goldman Sachs, the management did not believe borrowing money to fund the expansion of the fleet in the absence of fresh capital was a viable strategy.
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X-TRA VISION SALES JUMP 25% - The Irish Independent says video, DVD and computer game rental store group Xtra-vision Ltd, which is controlled by Blockbuster, saw turnover climb 25% to €89m by the end of 2003.
The paper says that costs, rose roughly in line with turnover, from €58m to €74m. Xtra-vision had an operating profit of €7.5m, which compared with €6.2m the previous year.
Pre-tax profit advanced from €6.4m to €7.5m. The group was boosted by a one-off profit of €2.9m from the disposal of fixed assets.
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WALL STREET 'HASSLE' WORRIES GERMAN FIRMS - The majority of German companies with US stock market listings would like to get out of New York to avoid the cost and hassle of complying with the US regulatory regime, senior German executives have told the Financial Times.
One board member of a company with a US listing told the FT at least half of the 13 Dax 30 companies with such a listing now wanted to withdraw from the US market.
The paper says his comment, after taking informal soundings from finance directors, follows remarks last week by the finance director of Siemens, who told a select panel of the group's banking advisers that it was considering a withdrawal.
Big German companies estimate the cost of maintaining their US listings at €30m-€80m. The bureaucratic burden of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, introduced in 2002 after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, is blamed for doubling the cost.
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WARNING ON FIVE MORE US DRUGS - The Guardian quotes a senior US drug official as saying that at least another five medicines at present on sale need further scrutiny in the wake of recent health scares.
Dr David Graham, a reviewer for the food and drug administration, delivered the warning during a Senate hearing in Washington looking at the circumstances behind the recent withdrawal of the Merck arthritis drug, Vioxx. The drug was pulled from the market after it was linked to a higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes in users.
'I would argue that the FDA as currently configured is incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx', Dr Graham said.
The paper says he identified GlaxoSmithKline's asthma drug, Serevent, AstraZeneca's cholesterol fighter Crestor, Pfizer's arthritis treatment Bextra, Roche's acne treatment Accutane and Abbot Laboratories weight-loss drug Meridia, as carrying possible risks.
