GREENCORE CEO SAYS BUSINESS NOW IN BETTER SHAPE THAN THIS TIME LAST YEAR - Food group Greencore has today published results for the past year, which show that group revenue increased by 8.7% to £804.2m sterling. Its operating profit was broadly the same as last year's and it says that despite challenging market conditions its convenience foods division put in a good performance. Yesterday the company's shares fell after it said talks with a prospective buyer had ended without agreement.
Greencore's chief executive Patrick Coveney says that despite the challenging and volatile market conditions, the company performed well during the 12 months to the end of September. He said the business is in better shape than this time last year after the £113m deal to buy UK-based group Uniq.
Despite Greencore's decision to change its reporting currency from euro to sterling, Mr Coveney says the group remains - and will continue to remain - headquartered in Ireland. He says the currency move makes sense as 90% of Greencore's revenues are now generated in sterling.
On the ending of talks over a potential takeover, Mr Coveney says that as a public company Greencore has an obligation to consider anything that could improve the interests of the company's shareholders. He stresses that the approach was not sought out and says that given what is happening on the debt markets, the two sides decided to end the discussions. Mr Coveney adds that the euro zone crisis is not really impacting the business as it has its own long-term debt plans in place.
The Greencore CEO says that if the sugar industry was revived here, the company would not get back into the business. He says the company's strategy is now focused on convenience foods in international markets. But he says that if it could offer any help in ways of expertise and experience, it would happily do so.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam arrived yesterday at a US federal prison to start serving an 11-year sentence, the longest-ever sentence for insider trading. He was fined $92.8m, also a record, and his case has led to more than two dozen related convictions. He had earlier lost his bid to be freed during the appeals process, as he was considered a flight risk. He reported yesterday to the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, which specialises in inmates who need medical care, as he has advanced diabetes and will soon need a kidney transplant. His poor health was a sentencing consideration. He made more than $60m in illegal profits in a scheme that enlisted friends and associates both at hedge funds at a publicly traded companies.
*** AIB is looking for Central Bank approval to appoint Peter Rossiter as its permanent chief risk officer, headhunting him from Anglo, or the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Peter Rossiter, who used to work at Citigroup, has worked at Anglo for two years. He joined 11 months after the bank was nationalised. AIB has been without a permanent chief risk officer since May 2009.
*** On the currency markets today the euro is trading at $1.337 cents and 85.5 pence sterling.
