NEW APPIAN FUND PLANS TO INVEST €50m IN COMMERCIAL PROPERTY - Appian Asset Management has joined forces with Burlington Real Estate to launch a new fund that will seek to invest about €50 million in commercial real estate in Ireland over the next 18 months.
Called the Appian Burlington Property Fund, it plans to invest in a mix of office, retail and industrial units, with about 80 per cent of its activity in greater Dublin and the balance in large regional cities. Appian will manage the fund while Burlington Real Estate will provide property investment advice and management services. Set up in 2003, Appian has €800 million in assets under management and is led by chief executive Patrick Lawless and chairman Kieran McGowan, says the Irish Times. Appian's latest accounts show that it made a pretax profit of €208,389 on income of just under €2.9 million in 2015. Burlington Real Estate was set up in 2012 by former members of the Treasury Holding management team, John Bruder and Niall Kavanagh. It is a property investment and development management company operating across the office, retail, residential and industrial sectors.
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IDA REJECTS FOSTER CLAIM OF 'POACHING' - There is no justification for claims by Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster that the Republic is trying to "poach investment" and undermine the North's economy in the wake of Brexit, the head of the IDA has insisted.
In his first public comments on the issue since Ms Foster's remarks last month, Martin Shanahan told the Irish Independent that he had no idea what Ms Foster was talking about. "I don't believe there's any justification," the IDA boss said. "In truth, I don't know to what the First Minister is referring." Ms Foster told the DUP party conference last month that Irish Government representatives are sent out around the world to "talk down" the North's economy, and "to attempt to poach our investors". She claimed a hard border existed in the mind of the Irish Government, writes the Irish Independent. Foreign Affairs minister Charlie Flanagan expressed surprise at the comments, which he deemed unhelpful. Mr Shanahan also dismissed the claim. "Obviously the UK is a competitor, Northern Ireland is a competitor, but as a source of foreign direct investment (FDI) it is not something that the IDA is focused on," Mr Shanahan said. "We are focused on Europe, we are focused on Asia, we are focused on the US."
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LANDOWNERS LEARN OF RICH RETURNS FROM MATURE HARDWOOD - Landowners continue to plant up to an additional 6,500 hectares of trees every year, say the organisers of a workshop on hardwood forestry in the Manor Hotel, Abbeyleix, Co Laois.
This event is hosted by the Teagasc’s Forestry Development Department, and comes at a time when many of the broadleaf woodlands planted in the early 1990s are approaching the time for thinning. The key message of the event is that quality is key in the production of valuable hardwood timber, says the Irish Examiner. Of the 6,000 to 6,500 hectares of land being added to forestry each year, 20% to 30% is going to hardwood planting. In recent years, a lot of new growers have opted for conifers, which can mature in 30 to 40 years; i.e. reach the 25 diameter breast height required by industry. Hardwoods take longer. Ash and sycamore can take 50-70 years to mature; beech, 80-100 years; oak, more than 100 years.
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TESCO BANK IGNORED DANGER SIGNS OVER HOLES IN CYBER SECURITY, SAY EXPERTS - Tesco Bank ignored warning signs that its vulnerable software was being targeted by cyber criminals for months before thousands of its customers had money stolen a week ago, according to internet security experts.
The cyber attack on Tesco Bank forced the company to repay £2.5m of losses to 9,000 customers in a heist described as unprecedented by regulators. It is being investigated by several authorities, including the National Crime Agency. The financial offshoot of the UK’s largest supermarket group has not said how the money was stolen. However, two cyber security specialists told the Financial Times that Tesco was targeted by hackers and had weaknesses in its mobile apps months before the large-scale attack took place. CyberInt, an Israeli firm that collects and analyses data from various online sources, said it had found evidence that Tesco Bank customers’ current accounts, savings accounts and credit card details were being traded on the dark web - the unsearchable part of the internet used mainly by criminals. Separately, mobile app testing firm Codified Security said its researchers found a number of vulnerabilities in the apps of both Tesco and Tesco Bank this year, but its attempts to inform the company were either rebuffed or ignored.
