Morning business news

ESB sells UK engineering business - LSE listed Enterprise plc has bought the ESB's UK engineering consultancy business - ESB International Engineering - for €17m just three weeks after selling off its ESB shops to Bank of Scotland for €120m. All ESB IE employees will keep their jobs - just over 300 jobs in Britain and over 90 Irish jobs. ESB IE has been in business for 17 years and provides services to the electricity, gas, water, telecoms and construction sectors.

ESB's group financial director Bernard Byrne says the sale of ESB International Engineering is part of the company's focus of disposing non-core activities. He says that while there is nothing in the pipeline at the moment, other such deals could arise from time to time.

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Bank of Ireland enters affordable housing sector - Bank of Ireland has become the first private lender to enter the mortgage market for Affordable or 'Local Authority' Housing.  The mortgage product is called 'Breakthrough' and offers customers loans of up to 97% on their houses. Joe Larkin, Managing Director of Bank of Ireland Mortgages, says the need for affordable housing in the current property market is driven by the extremely strong growth in the market in recent years. He says that lots of potential house buyers have the repayment capacity, but can't take that first step on to the property ladder. He predicts that about 11,000 affordable homes will become available in the next two to three years

Anyone applying for a Breakthrough mortgage must have been allocated a property by  their Local Authority before applying for their mortgage. They must also have been issued with a 'Confirmation to Lender' certificate from the Local Authority.  Mr Larkin says that if the buyer sells the property within 20 years they will have to pay the Local Authority a percentage of the sale proceeds as a clawback. 

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US crude prices at new record high - US crude oil prices hit a new record overnight, up 35 cents to $57.62 a barrel, with signs that the OPEC oil producing countries could raise supply. Nigeria's presidential adviser on petroleum said yesterday that the increase could happen within two weeks if prices stayed above $55. The possibility of a rise in oil supply of up to 500,000 barrels a day was left open at the last OPEC meeting. On Thursday last Goldman Sachs analysts said oil could enter a 'super-spike', rising towards $105 a barrel.

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Morning briefs - Oil and gas company Dragon Oil this morning has reported a 73% increase in profits after tax to $49.7m. The increase was mainly due to higher oil prices.

*** Waste management firm Greenstar has bought Wexford group Kelly Recycling, one of the largest operators in the South East which collects and recycles 15,000 tonnes of waste a year. Greenstar says it has earmarked €100m to finance corporate activity in this year - this will include acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships.