SLOW START FOR IRISH HOUSE BUILDS IN 2015 - There has been a “dramatic” slowdown in residential construction activity in the early part of this year, following significant increases in residential planning applications and construction project commencements last year.
Latest data from the independent planning research company Link2Plans show that planning applications rose by 12% and project commencements were up by 30% last year, reports the Irish Examiner. Much of the increase in activity occurred in the first quarter of 2014, ahead of the introduction of new building regulations. As a result, growth in project commencements fell from 66% to 30% from the mid-way point of last year. “Despite the slowdown in growth in the second half of the year, 2014 was a very positive year for the residential construction sector in Ireland,” said Danny O’Shea, the managing director of Link2Plans. “This recovery in the sector, which began in the middle of 2013, is being driven by activity in Dublin and Cork which, combined, accounted for 42% of all planning applications and 35% of commencements in 2014.
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PREMIER LOTTERIES TO APPEAR BEFORE OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE - The new private operator of the National Lottery has been called to appear before the Oireachtas finance committee following the recent systems crash and the ongoing controversy over its new ticket terminals. Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), which only took over the running of the franchise late last year, has been criticised over the introduction of new technology which retailers claim has undermined service levels and damaged sales, writes the Irish Times. Representatives of the company, including chief executive Dermot Griffin, are provisionally scheduled to appear before the committee next week. It is also expected to hear from the newly installed National Lottery regulator, Liam Sloyan, and from retailer groups. The decision to the call in PLI, a consortium comprising An Post and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, owners of UK operator Camelot, was taken following discussions in private session. Attention is likely to focus on the PLI’s decision to subcontract its telecommunications provision out to a third party in the UK called WestBase. Last month, the franchise was forced to postpone a weekly prize draw for the first time in its 28-year history after ticket terminals across its retail network crashed for several hours because of an outage at its telecoms provider Telefónica, which it hires through WestBase.
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SMBC AVIATION: AIRCRAFT LEASING FIRM PROFITS SOAR TO $409.6m - Operating profits at the aircraft leasing company, SMBC Aviation Capital Ltdlast year soared by 13% to $409.6m (€361.58m). This followed revenues at the Dublin-based firm increasing by $145m or 23% from $626.98m to $771.9m in the 12 months to the end of last March. The firm last year recorded pre-tax profits of $212.23m following a pre-tax loss of $120m in 2013 - a positive swing of $332m. The company achieved the profits after paying out $194.2m in net interest payments and $3.15m in break losses. Numbers employed at the company last year increased from 73 to 113 and the staff there are richly rewarded for their work, says the Irish Independent. The 113 staff last year shared a pay bonanza of $39.8m or €352,575 each on average. Eleven directors served on the board's firm including four Irish and the figures show that the key management personnel that includes the directors and members of the executive committee last year shared salaries and pension benefits totalling $11.3m.
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EUROPEAN COMPANIES BOOSTED BY FALL IN OIL PRICE AND EURO - European companies are finally showing signs of benefiting from the economic recovery in the region, with many getting an extra boost from the fall in the oil price and the euro, says the Financial Times. "Revenue beats have been the best for roughly 10 quarters, a lot of it driven by currency," said Nick Nelson, European equity strategist at UBS in London. "As ever with Europe it’s not high growth rates or exciting numbers, but it feels like an inflection point. People got too bearish about the European growth outlook," said Graham Secker, European equity strategist at Morgan Stanley. Companies reporting a pick-up in performance included L’Oréal , the world’s biggest cosmetic group by sales, whose western European revenues were up 4% in the last quarter, by far the best performance in that region during the year. Renault , the French carmaker, said a turnround in the European car market had helped it to offset rapidly falling sales in Russia. The fall in the value of the euro over the quarter provided an additional boost to sales at companies as diverse as Sanofi, the French drugmaker; DSM, the Dutch biotech company; and Dassault, the French defence group. Foreign exchange movements added 3 to 4 percentage points to year-on-year revenue growth at the three companies over the quarter.
