ANGLO COPING WITH MARKETS TURMOIL - Anglo Irish Bank has reported record profits and record earnings per share for the year to the end of September. Underlying pre-tax profits were up 46% to more than €1.2 billion.
Chief executive David Drumm said all of its markets - Ireland, UK and US - had performed well and the proportion of bad loans had fallen to 0.5%.
He said 37% lending growth this year would moderate next year, and the longer-term sustainable growth rate for the bank was 15-20%.
On the current crisis in the market, Mr Drumm said the practice of spreading risk by parcelling out pieces of debt was a risk, and Anglo operated in a different way and looked at every loan individually.
He said the bank had taken a €67m impairment provision, which he described as a prudent measure to cover its exposure to structure investment vehicles (SIVs), which had been hit by the problems in credit markets.
Mr Drumm described the recent fall in bank shares generally as 'overplayed' and expected a recovery in the next year.
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EIRCOM Q1 REVENUE UP 4% - Eircom says it hauled in more than €500m in its first quarter - the three months to the end of September. Revenue of €514m represented a gain of 4%, of which €176m was operating profit.
