MONETARY AUTHORITIES SEEK NEW WAYS TO FUND BANKS - The monetary authorities are working on additional ways of funding the Irish banks beyond drawing discounted loans from the European Central Bank or borrowing under emergency lending from the Central Bank in Dublin. The Irish Times says that the ECB is continuing to allow the banks to draw emergency loans from the Central Bank on the condition that the Government agrees to increase the pace of the downsizing of the banks. The banks must submit plans on asset disposals by April showing how they will shrink in size. The authorities are assessing further ways of funding the banks as the lenders meet deadlines under the €85 billion loans package agreed by the Government with the EU, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund. The banks are also being encouraged to improve the quality of ECB-eligible collateral such as covered bonds (IOUs supported by loans) in a bid to increase the sums they can borrow from Frankfurt. When lending to banks, the ECB applies a discount on the collateral on the basis of its quality. The Central Bank and the ECB do not comment on emergency lending drawn by the Irish banks.
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SALE CLOSE TO BE AGREED ON QUINLAN'S PROPERTY - A sale of property developer Derek Quinlan's Ballsbridge, Dublin, house is close to being agreed, but the house remains on the market with a guide price of about €7.5m, the Irish Independent understands. Any sale of 6 Shrewsbury Road is not expected to happen before Christmas, despite weekend reports suggesting it had been sold after just two months on the open market. Mr Quinlan is in the middle of a major asset-disposal programme, with assets for sale in Ireland, the UK, the US and continental Europe. NAMA is just one of Mr Quinlan's lenders pushing for assets sales. It is understood the mortgage on the Shrewsbury Road property is with Bank of Scotland (Ireland). While the value of the home has plummeted from prices achieved in the last years of the boom, Mr Quinlan is not in negative equity on the property and will use the proceeds to reduce his overall bank debt. Mr Quinlan, now living in Switzerland, owns other properties in the Ailesbury Road/Shrewsbury Road area and these are expected to be put up for sale, too. Mr Quinlan is described by NAMA sources as being co-operative on selling down assets and one of his assets in Mayfair is likely to return a substantial profit for NAMA once it is sold.
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CONROY CLOSE TO DECISION ON MONAGHAN GOLD MINE - Irish gold and mineral resources exploration company, Conroy Diamonds & Gold is close to gauging whether a full-scale gold mine in Co Monaghan is a viable option, says the Irish Examiner. The company is expecting to receive results of ongoing technical and financial viability studies at the prospect, early in the new year. Conroy has also formally changed its name to Conroy Gold & Natural Resources. That previously-mooted move was one of a number of resolutions put to shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Dublin, yesterday, all of which were passed unanimously. The company - whose main interests are two gold and zinc projects along the border in Co Monaghan and Co Armagh - recently reported a marginal fall in full-year pre-tax losses to €290,445, for the 12 months to the end of May. Shareholders were yesterday told, by chairman and founder Richard Conroy, that sufficient money has been raised to fund the work needed to complete feasibility studies at the one million ounce prospect at Clontibret, Co Monaghan. 'Clay Lake [in Armagh] is potentially a larger target and step-out drilling has proven very positive,' he added.
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PILOT WHO CROSSED O'LEARY RESIGNS - The Ryanair pilot who said the airline should replace Michael O'Leary, the low-cost airline's chief executive, with a junior flight attendant to save money has quit after being reassigned from southern France to the "Siberia" of a base in Lithuania, says the Financial Times. Captain Morgan Fischer was one of almost 30 Ryanair pilots working at Marseilles who had to move after the airline announced in October that it was closing the base following a disagreement with French authorities. The pilots were asked to bid for new bases. Most did so and were offered work at bases in Spain, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, including some a few hours' drive from Marseilles, where many live with their families. Capt Fischer, who had worked for Ryanair for almost five years and had spent almost a year resolving a contractual dispute with the airline, said he wanted to discuss any move first, according to a close colleague. This was because he was concerned the low-cost carrier could treat a request to shift bases as an agreement to a new - and possibly inferior - contract. The 41-year-old American, who lives with his family in the pretty town of Aix-en-Provence, was then offered a transfer to Kaunas, Lithuania's second-largest city.
