CONCERN FOR IRISH EXPORTERS AS STERLING TAKES FRESH POUNDING - The value of sterling against the dollar fell to a five and a half year low yesterday and held at six-month lows against the euro on the back of disappointing industrial production figures.
Manufacturing endured its largest fall in over two years in November, highlighting concerns about the UK economy's recovery. Worries about the UK's future in the European Union and an uneven domestic economic recovery have weighed on the pound since the start of the year, says the Irish Independent. That's prompted markets to even further delay their calls on the timing of when the Bank of England will announce its first interest rate hike. The pound fell 0.5% to $1.4470 as of mid-morning yesterday, after touching $1.4459, the lowest since June 2010. By mid-afternoon, €1 was worth 75 pence sterling. UK industrial output dropped 0.7% from the previous month. Economists had been expecting no growth. Separate data showed that retail spending in the UK over Christmas rose by a "disappointing" 0.9% in the three months to December compared with a year earlier.
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LIBERTY INSURANCE PREDICTS RETURN TO 'GOOD' PROFIT IN 2017 - Liberty Insurance in Ireland will record another loss this year but expects to achieve a "good" profit in 2017 following changes to its business model, according to the head of the Boston-based insurer's international division.
Luis Bonell also said US parent company Liberty Mutual did not regret acquiring the former Quinn Insurance business out of administration in 2011, but he accepted it underestimated the challenge of turning the business around. In terms of its financial performance, Mr Bonell said Liberty "will be having a loss" in 2016, partly due to costs associated with 285 redundancies announced last June, writes the Irish Times. It also withdrew from writing business in Britain, where it had clocked up significant losses, and decided to exit certain lines of business in Ireland. "We feel quite comfortable that 2017 will be a year of good profitability," he said. "We will get close in 2016 . . . and for sure 2017 we expect good profitability. We also trust that the [Irish] market will accompany that." On the decision to introduce more redundancies, of which 55 were compulsory, Mr Bonell said: "We had a cost base that was too big. This is something we had to address. We [now] feel good about the cost structure. There is still some fine-tuning that we need to do but the main decisions that we made in order to achieve a competitive cost structure were made." Mr Bonell accepted Liberty had made a number of strategic mistakes on entering the Irish market.
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CASH MOUNTAIN AT DUBLIN'S COPPER FACE JACKS NIGHTCLUB NOW TOPS €50m - The cash mountain at the firm behind the country's best-known nightclub, Copper Face Jacks, passed a whopping €50m last year, as millions continued to roll into the business.
New accounts just filed by Cathal and Paula Jackson's Breanagh Catering Ltd show that the firm earned a pre-tax profit of just under €5m, or €95,000 a week last year, says the Irish Examiner. The pre-tax profit of €4.94m however in the 12 months to the end of January comes after it earned a profit of €5.55m in 2014, representing a drop of 11%. The club - owned by former garda Cathal Jackson and housed in the Jackson Court Hotel on Dublin's Harcourt St - has long since entered Dublin night time folklore and has amassed the massive cash pile over the years as a result of its enduring popularity. The company's cash pile jumped by €4.48m to €50.9m from €46.42m, and the firm's accumulated profits stood at €63.3m. The nightclub operates seven nights a week and contains six bars, two covered beer gardens and a "premium level", which is a private room for private parties.
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RYANAIR AND EASYJET EYE WORK WITH RIVALS - European passengers flying long-haul to the US or further afield could soon find themselves travelling part of the way on a low-cost airline should Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, get his way.
Europe's biggest budget airline by revenue has signalled a major shift in strategy by targeting tie-ups with flag carriers under which it would provide them with passengers for their long-haul flights. EasyJet is considering a similar move. This could see Ryanair and easyJet partner with British Airways or Lufthansa, with passengers initially flying on the budget airlines' short-haul passenger jets and then transferring on to the flag carriers' long-range aircraft, says the Financial Times. Through a single transaction with one airline, someone wishing to go from Lyon to New York might in the future fly from the French city to London's Heathrow airport with easyJet, and then switch smoothly to BA to travel to the US. It would be a remarkable turn of events - for the past two decades, Ryanair, easyJet and other budget airlines have engaged in cut-throat competition with flag carriers on European short-haul routes. The likes of BA, Air France and Lufthansa have ceded as much as 40% of the European short-haul market to low-cost carriers offering cheap fares. Furthermore, the willingness of easyJet and Ryanair to countenance partnerships with flag carriers represents a big change for the budget airlines, which have traditionally shunned the idea of providing so-called feeder traffic to other carriers due to the costs and complexity.
