GREENCORE'S TAX BILL JUST €566,000 THANKS TO 2011 UNIQ BUY - Irish food group Greencore - the world's biggest maker of sandwiches - is still paying an effective tax rate of just 1% following its £113m acquisition of British firm Uniq in 2011.
Its tax bill in the last financial year was just £400,000 (€566,000). Greencore - spawned from State-owned Irish Sugar in the early 1990s - has been using £400m (€566m) of unused tax losses and capital allowances that were on Uniq's books when it was bought, in order to slash the Irish firm's tax bill. Greencore also had an effective tax rate of 1% in the previous financial year. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Greencore chief executive Patrick Coveney said that about half that £400m has already been used to offset tax liabilities. While it's headquartered in Ireland, Greencore is listed on the stock exchange in London and currently generates the bulk of its annual £1.34 billion (€1.9 billion) revenue in the UK. Most of the deferred tax assets relate to Uniq, although some are as a result of start-up losses incurred in the United States. Greencore had a £7.3m (€10.3m) tax corporation tax liability in Ireland at the end of its financial year in September. Utilising the deferred tax assets, coupled with other accounting items, meant its final tax bill was just £400,000. It made a pre-tax profit of £62.8m (€88.8m) in the period. It paid pre-exceptional tax of £500,000 the previous year.
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DESMOND VOWS TO BLOCK MERGER - Dermot Desmond will challenge Ladbrokes’s and Coral’s agreement to pay their partner Playtech €106 million, in a bid to have the pair’s €3.3 billion merger put to a second shareholders’ meeting.
The Irish financier, who owns 2.8% of Ladbrokes, vowed to continue his fight against the listed bookmaker’s merger with Coral after a 96% majority voted for it at a shareholders’ meeting yesterday, says the Irish Times. Tomorrow he is due to ask the hearings committee of the London Stock Exchange Takeover Panel, which regulates quoted companies, to put the deal to a second meeting on the basis that Ladbrokes failed to publish information material to the transaction in a circular sent to shareholders in October. Mr Desmond complained to the panel earlier this month about an agreement to pay both companies’ technology partner, Playtech, £75 million (€106 million) as part of the merger. He argued that details of contracts connected with this should have been published. The Takeover Panel ruled against him and he then asked that the hearings committee review this decision. Ladbrokes has agreed with Coral and the panel’s executive, to convene the second shareholders’ meeting if the committee finds in Mr Desmond’s favour and declares the information should have been published. Market sources explained the committee will not take yesterday’s vote into account and must weigh Mr Desmond’s case on its merits. However, they suggested that he could find it difficult to overturn a 96 per cent majority if he succeeds in getting a second meeting.
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SECURING WHITEGATE REFINERY'S FUTURE 'HIGHLY DESIRABLE' FOR IRELAND'S ENERGY SECURITY AND ECONOMIC PROSPECTS - The Government has confirmed it considers the continued operation of the Whitegate Refinery as central to the country’s energy security and economic prospects.
The refinery’s parent company, Phillips 66, confirmed to the Irish Examiner this week that it was again looking for a buyer for the plant, having failed to drum up interest when it pulled the plug on the sales process more than 18 months ago. A spokesperson for the Department of Communications, Energy, and Natural Resources said it was recently made aware by Phillips 66 that it was planning to put the refinery on the market again. The department is in regular contact with Phillips 66 and has met with the refinery’s management and union representatives, the spokesperson added. “The Government views the continued operation of the Whitegate Refinery on a commercial basis as highly desirable from an energy security and economic perspective,” the spokesperson said. "Security of supply remains a fundamental tenet of our energy policy. The minister [Alex White] is in contact with his ministerial colleagues to discuss the importance of continued operations at the facility." Mr White’s most recent engagement with union representatives was on October 21. Politicians from all sides of the spectrum have urged the Government to engage with Phillips 66 as it seeks a bidder for the facility.
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BIG PAY PACKAGES WILL NOT MAKE BANKERS WORK ANY HARDER, SAYS DEUTSCHE'S CRYAN - For most leaders, admitting they do not understand something is a no-no. But not Deutsche Bank’s new co-chief executive John Cryan - at least when it comes to the bonus culture and his own pay packet, says the Financial Times.
“I have no idea why I was offered a contract with a bonus in it because I promise you I will not work any harder or any less hard in any year, in any day because someone is going to pay me more or less,” he told a conference in Frankfurt. Pay in the sector was still too high, he added, and he did not “fully empathise” with people who “say they turn up to work and work harder because they can be paid a little bit more”. “I’ve never been able to understand the way additional excess riches drive people to behave differently.” He made the comments as Deutsche and some of its big European rivals face pressure to prove to shareholders they are using their money wisely and that their restructuring programmes will produce improved returns. Mr Cryan’s view, unsurprisingly, is not popular with his peers. “He’s entitled to his views,” said one senior London-based banker. “[But] it’s market economics . . . It’s totally driven by supply and demand.” One recruiter said that, despite Mr Cryan’s rhetoric, Deutsche had recently hired a string of people in New York who were paid “very competitively”. “There’s an element of playing to the gallery here,” the recruiter said, noting that regulators in Europe had made it clear that they wanted banks to pay people less. “The job of CEO is as much political as it is managerial.”
