LEINSTER MUST TACKLE KIT FIRM PROBLEM - The Irish Times says that just one week after launching its new jersey, Heineken Cup champions Leinster could have to bin the kit after its supplier Canterbury Europe Ltd was placed into administration yesterday in Britain.
The paper says administrator KPMG terminated all of Canterbury's sponsorship contracts, including its deal with Leinster, which was due to run until June 2012 and is thought to be worth about €250,000 a year to the Heineken Cup holders.
The Irish Times quotes a spokesman for Leinster Rugby as describing Canterbury's difficulties as unfortunate before adding: 'We are going to sit tight and assess our options.'
The administrator laid off 72 of Canterbury's 86 staff at its base in Stockport, Cheshire, but said the business would continue to trade while it tried to find a new owner. It ran into difficulties following a failed expansion policy.
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ANGLO RESTRUCTURES LOAN TO UK HOTELS CHAIN - The Irish Independent reports that Anglo Irish Bank has agreed to extend the term of €391m in loans to Puma Hotels plc, a chain of 20 UK four-star conference and leisure hotels.
The Indo says that in return Puma has agreed to raise £20m in equity and £15m (€17.6m) of this will go towards reducing the amount owed to Anglo from the €409m which Puma had drawn down. Puma has also agreed to pay a £1m arrangement fee and an increased margin - up from 1.75% to 2.5%.
Under the terms of the refinancing, Anglo has extended the term by three years to December 31 2012, and has dropped its loan-to-value covenant test for the duration of the facility.
Puma, at one time part of the Dawnay Day group, handed over the operation of the hotels to Spanish hotel operator Barcelo in 2007 and its turnover is now reliant on rental income.
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GOLDMAN SACHS SHARE SELLING SURGE AMID TURMOIL - The Financial Times quotes filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission as showing that executives at Goldman Sachs sold almost $700m worth of shares following the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.
The FT says most of the sales occurred during the period in which the investment bank enjoyed the support of $10 billion from the troubled asset relief programme.
The paper says the surge in selling among Goldman partners, at a time when the US government had thrown a lifeline to Wall Street, is likely to draw criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Having survived the crisis, the bank is expected to report strong second-quarter earnings on rebounding trading profits.
The FT says that for the eight-month period for which figures are available, Goldman partners sold more than $691m in company stock, even as the firm expanded its public float from 395 million to 503 million shares in several capital raises. For the comparable period between September 2007 and April 2008, when the average share price was substantially higher, Goldman partners sold about $438m in stock.
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NO HALIFAX DECISION ON IRISH PULL-OUT - The Irish Examiner says Halifax has not reached a final decision on whether to pull out of the Irish market and is continuing to review its operations. Lloyds, which owns Halifax, is understood to have received instructions from the British Treasury to cease lending in Ireland and repatriate assets.
The move is the result of a group review which was started after the British government came to the rescue of Bank of Scotland Ireland's Edinburgh-based parent bank, HBOS, last September by forcing it to merge with Lloyds TSB. In August 2006 BOSI announced it was changing the name of its Irish branches to Halifax.
The Examiner says a spokeswoman for Halifax refused to comment on the speculation over the company's plans.
But the paper quotes an industry source as saying that Halifax has been 'effectively out of the market for some time and has stated as much with its excessive borrowing costs of 7% and greater'.
