GOLF COURSE BOSS'S $2.1m CLAIM HAS NO BASIS, SAYS NAMA - The boss of an exclusive golf course development in the US has no reasonable grounds to progress a $2.1m claim against the National Asset Management Agency, the State's toxic bank has insisted. The Irish Independent says that in court documents filed a few days ago, NAMA claims that James Vanden Berg, who was hired to run the Georgia Golf Club in 2001 by Barber Creek Land, has no basis for trying to make the agency liable for an "unenforceably vague employment agreement". Former tax inspector turned financier Derek Quinlan was a significant shareholder in Barber Creek Land. Mr Vanden Berg has claimed he is entitled to bonuses of $2.1m (€1.6m) relating to his management of the development. He said that while $88m in loans attached to the complex were transferred to NAMA in 2009, he continued to manage the development and met bonus-related targets. Nama had taken a "stubborn and litigious" approach, he previously claimed in court documents, prompting him to take legal action to claim payment of the bonuses. But lawyers for NAMA said Mr Vanden Berg's claim, which he says is based on a 2004 contract with Barber Creek, is without any sound basis. "The unenforceably vague employment agreement purports to set forth, among other things, plaintiff's salary, discretionary bonus and other benefits," the agency said.
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TECH GIANT CISCO TO EXPAND IRISH OPERATION - Electronics and communications giant Cisco is planning to expand its Irish operations in Galway, says the Irish Times. Cisco's European president Chris Dedicoat said the investment is part of the company's growing commitment to Ireland. "Ireland is delivering exactly what it was expected to do and more," said Mr Dedicoat in Davos. "We've found Ireland to be very productive in term of capability. We've found it very beneficial to research and development: the quality of products, the quality of engineers, the ability to collaborate on a global basis." Cisco is one of the world's largest technology companies, with annual revenues of more than €30 billion in 2010 and 20,000 employees worldwide. Cisco's Irish operation, which opened in Furbo, Co Galway, five years ago, employs 180 people locally and 100 in Dublin. Corkman Barry O'Sullivan, the head of the Irish business, said that continued research and development expansion was planned next month but declined to go into detail. He said the company took on 20 graduates last year and would take on even more in 2012. "The quality of engineering graduates is improving, with more people choosing engineering as a career than four or five years ago," said Mr OSullivan.
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WATERSTONES' IRISH ARM RECORDS €13m PRE-TAX LOSS - The Irish arm of bookseller Waterstones plunged further into the red last year after the company recorded impairment charges and store closure costs totalling €13.1 million, says the Irish Examiner. Last year, two of Waterstones' three Dublin stores were shut down with the loss of 46 jobs following a decision by its former parent, the HMV Group. The British-based Waterstones group was acquired by a vehicle of Russian billionaire businessman Alexander Mamut, A&NN Capital Fund Management Ltd, from HMV for £53m (€63.2m) on a debt and cash-free basis last June. Accounts just filed for the 53 weeks to April 30 last year show that Waterstones Booksellers Ireland recorded a pre-tax loss of €13m after recording a pre-tax loss of €7.9m in fiscal 2010. The company recorded the loss last year after exceptional costs of €13.1m were incurred as a result of non- cash impairment of intangible assets, together with store closure and pension scheme settlement costs. The figures show that the bookseller's revenues last year declined by 8.8% from €21.7m to €19.8m.
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RATINGS AGENCIES TO BE QUIZZED OVER MF GLOBAL - Moody's Investors Service "did not have any understanding" that MF Global, the failed futures broker, had placed a $6.3 billion proprietary bet on the debt of troubled European sovereigns until about a week before the brokerage filed for bankruptcy, despite MF Global's disclosure of the gamble some five months earlier in May. The revelation, made in a letter by the agency to Congress obtained by the Financial Times, comes as US lawmakers plan this week to grill executives at Moody's and rival Standard & Poor's on what they knew and when ahead of the broker's collapse on October 31. The FT says that the bankrupt brokerage is in lawmakers' crosshairs due to some $1.2 billion in missing customer funds. Three months after MF Global's failure, investigators have yet to determine the whereabouts of the missing cash. According to a separate letter from S&P to Congress, also dated January 17 and seen by the Financial Times, S&P participated in a conference call on August 31 with MF Global's top executives at which the agency was told that the brokerage's regulators required it to boost the amount of capital held against those bonds, a disclosure MF Global made the next day to investors.
