FYFFES SPLIT COMPLICATES RESULTS - Results out this morning from Fyffes are complicated by the fact that in the last year the company has split some of its business into separate firms.
This means Fyffes is now exclusively focused on tropical fruits - bananas, melons and pineapples - and the demerged firm Total Produce looks after the rest of the fresh produce business. Blackrock International Land is made up of Fyffes' property interests.
Fyffes chairrman David McCann said its 2006 numbers were down because of changes in the EU banana import regime which were signalled in 2005. Additional duty alone cost the company €41m.
He said this was why the company had spun off its property interests into Blackrock and its distribution business into Total Produce.
Mr McCann also said increased fuel costs had affected the company, but would be stable this year. He said the new rules had lifted restrictions on imports, which made it harder to impose price increases, but he warned that banana prices would have to rise eventually because of the increased costs.
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McNAMARA INDIA POWER PLAN - Property developer Bernard McNamara is to develop a €1.7 billion power plant in India and may build an offshore €128m port to manage the coal which will fire the plant. If the building plans go ahead this will be the biggest deal by an Irish company in India.
