LUAS OPERATOR'S FIRST BUS BUY - The Irish Times says Luas operator Veolia Transport has acquired Nestor Bus, the Co Galway firm that was among the first to challenge Bus Eireann's monopoly over regional bus routes.
The paper says Turloughmore businessman Pat Nestor and his wife Teresa are the beneficiaries of a transaction which is believed to value their business at more than €1m, though the benefit to the couple will be less than this because the company has significant accumulated losses and debts.
The Irish Times says the business has had difficult relations with Bus Éireann. Formerly known as Connex, the Paris-based Veolia Transport has long signalled its intention to enter the bus sector after establishing its business here with the Luas operating contract.
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LONDON CITY DEAL STILL ON - The Irish Independent quotes sources close to the consortium buying London City Airport from financier Dermot Desmond as rejecting reports that the deal is nearing collapse.
The Indo quotes a banker close to the transaction as saying that the consortium was still very confident that the deal would be closed on Thursday, despite reports that investors are wary of the high debt levels involved in the transaction.
Last month, Mr Desmond agreed to sell London City Airport to an American investment consortium in a deal estimated to be worth about €1.1 billion.
Under the terms of the deal, AIG Financial Products and Global Infrastructure Partners, a joint venture between Credit Suisse and GE Infrastructure, each acquired a 50% equity stake in Desmond's company, Airport Management and Investment Ltd, which owns and operates the London airport. Press reports yesterday speculated the investment consortium had missed the deadline for a £405m syndicated loan, which was to be used to finance the deal.
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EU RAPS UK TELECOMS WATCHDOG ON MOBILES - The Financial Times reports on claims by the European Commission that mobile phone customers in Britain are being overcharged for calls to other networks because regulators have failed to crack down on operators clawing back the vast sums spent on acquiring 3G licences.
In a case which Brussels said could be a precedent for other European markets, the Commission called on Ofcom, the UK telecommunications watchdog, to rethink its earlier backing for the charges. It warned they could delay further reductions in mobile telephone bills.
The FT says Brussels is taking aim in particular at charges imposed by O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Hutchison 3G in Britain. Together the companies paid a total of £22 billion when the five British licences for spectrum needed to support multi-media applications were auctioned in 2000.
The paper says operators have sought to recoup their investment by adding, on average, 1.6 cent a minute as part of their so-called call termination charges - the levy paid by callers connecting with another network.
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FORMER ROVER OWNERS NET £16m - The Daily Telegraph says the former owners of MG Rover are set to become millions of pounds richer after clawing back more than £16m from the British tax authorities in the same year that the car company went bust with the loss of more than 6,000 jobs.
The paper says the news comes as Britain's Department of Trade and Industry admitted that its investigation into the collapse of MG Rover will drag on into 2007. The DTI also confirmed last night that the inquiry had cost nearly £7m, equivalent to £12,000 a day over the past 18 months.
Details of the Phoenix Four's latest paper windfall are contained in accounts filed for MGR Capital, a company controlling a book of historic Rover car leases.
