CRH SUBSIDIARY PAYS $470,000 TAX ON $125M PROFITS - The Luxembourg subsidiary of building materials group CRH earned profits of almost $125 million (€117 million) and paid tax of $470,000 (about €440,000) last year, according to figures just released.
CRH North America Luxembourg Sarl has assets of just under $2.8 billion (about €2.6 billion) but employs no staff, writes the Irish Times. The company is part of the group’s global tax and treasury structure and provides finance to its US business using loans raised from affiliated companies. Accounts just lodged by the Luxembourg-based business show that it earned profits in 2014 of $124.7 million. It paid $469,367 in tax, the financial statements show. The profit for the year was 32% ahead of the $86 million it earned in 2013 while its tax bill rose by about 8.5%, from $414,640. Its balance sheet shows that it had assets of $2.77 billion at the end of 2014, more or less in line with its position 12 months earlier. The figures show other CRH group companies owed it $2.39 billion on December 31st last, down marginally on the $2.43 billion due to it a year earlier. At the same time, it owed $2.36 billion to the parent group, which was also a slight reduction on the $2.42 billion it owed at the end of 2013.
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CYBER ATTACKS 'CRITICAL ISSUE' FOR LAW SECTOR - One in three of the country's top 20 law firms have experienced cyber attacks in their IT systems in the last year. Overall, one in five law firms throughout the country have been the victim of cyber attacks, prompting major investment to improve the security of their IT systems, says the Irish Independent. Almost two out of three law firms are set to further invest in IT over the next year, according to the annual Smith & Williamson survey of Irish law firms. Paul Wyse, Managing Director of Smith & Williamson Ireland, said that a large percentage of attacks go unreported because of their sensitive nature, but warned that the issue of cyber security has now become a "critical issue" for the legal sector. "It is an area few are willing to speak openly about but I think it is an area every firm will have concerns about, especially with technology playing a larger role in the sector," said Mr Wyse. Law firms, enjoying a return to growth on the back of increased property, litigation and commercial transactions, have also raised concerns about the impact of the UK leaving the EU. Almost 90% of the country's top 20 firms believe the legal sector in Ireland would be impacted by a Brexit, especially with regard to imports and exports with Ireland's largest trading partner.
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MOODY'S - 'BREXIT' MAY NOT SEE UK RATING CUT - Britain may not face a credit rating downgrade if it votes to leave the EU in a referendum due by the end of 2017, the lead UK analyst at ratings agency Moody’s said in an interview yesterday. Prime minister David Cameron, who has promised to renegotiate Britain’s EU ties ahead of the vote, favours staying in a reformed EU but has said he rules nothing out if he cannot get the changes he wants. Fellow rating agency Standard & Poor’s has already lowered the outlook for Britain’s triple-A rating due to the risks to economic growth posed by the referendum. It has also warned so-called ‘Brexit’ could prompt a two-notch downgrade, writes the Irish Examiner. But Kathrin Muehlbronner, senior vice president at Moody’s, told the Sunday Telegraph that uncertainty alone may not be enough to change Britain’s rating. “What we care about is economic strength, and it is our view that the economic impact of a Brexit would be negative. The question is: how big would the damage be? Would we just be looking at a short-term moderation of growth where the UK puts in place other policies that mitigate the other downsides?,” she said.
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SIEMENS CHIEF ADDS VOICE TO PARIS FEARS - Heightened political risk in Europe is damping companies’ investment plans and fuelling concerns about a global growth slowdown, the head of Europe’s largest industrial conglomerate has warned. “My biggest [business] concern is the fallout of the geopolitical distress. We’ve seen a new quality with the sad events in Paris,” Joe Kaeser, chief executive of Germany’s Siemens said. “Investment is about believing, about the future, and [when] events like that happen, people will wait,” he added. His warning was echoed by Pier Carlo Padoan, Italy’s finance minister, who said the Paris attacks could do “serious damage” to the eurozone’s recovery, says the Financial Times. “The biggest economic damage from these attacks is on confidence and confidence is a crucial element in this phase. It is indispensable to help countries exit the crisis,“ Mr Padoan said. “Any elements that undermine confidence are very dangerous.” While initial reaction to the Paris attacks suggested that their effect on business would be muted, Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe at Eurasia Group, said increased terrorist risk to Europe would weigh negatively on consumer and investor confidence.
