DCC REALISES MANOR PARK INVESTMENT - Jim Flavin's DCC has realised its investment in Manor Park Homes, the company that bought Charles Haughey's land, as a dividend valued at €172m. This is according to a stock exchange announcement this morning.
John Sheehan, analyst with NCB Stockbrokers, says that DCC has held a 49% stake in Manor Park for a long time and in February the shareholders in Manor Park said they would put their interest in the company up for sale. He says that sales process has been pretty protracted as it it has been running for ten months.
The analyst says that today's news is effectively a resolution of that and DCC is receiving a dividend of €172m instead. The structure of Manor Park has been reorganised as DCC will no longer have a 'material interest' in the company. He says the move should be well received by shareholders.
Mr Sheehan says it is difficult to know why DCC decided on this course of action and adds that this morning's announcement is quite brief. He says there has been speculation over the past year that with the housing market in its current condition that interest in Manor Park Homebuilders could have waned.
'This is a different means of extracting value from the business', he states. He says that Manor Park has a very long landbank and is a way of extracting cash from it. He says the monies released will enable DCC to engage in some buy-backs.
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BROADBAND TAKE-UP TO REACH 1 MILLION BY NEXT YEAR - Broadband take-up continues to grow strongly, says the latest report from ComReg, the communications regulator. Dr Dermot Nolan, head of ComReg's retail division, says that Ireland now has nearly 800,000 broadband subscribers. This compares with 200,000 two years ago. He says the rate of take-up is the fastest in Europe as well as the fastest in the entire OECD. Dr Nolan says the growth is across different methods of broadband. Phone-type broadband is growing is as cable, wireless and mobile. He says this is good for consumers and for competition and is a good omen for the future.
Despite this progress however, Ireland is still beHind some of the Nordic and Far East countries in relation to broadband coverage. He admits that broadband was slow to be introduced here but says the rate of growth over the last two years is positive and he says that the million level mark will be reached next year.
Dr Nolan also says that there are nearly five million mobile phone subscriptions in the country - proving the country's love affair with the mobile phone. Irish people also have the second highest in Europe in terms of minutes used. French people talk more than us, but we text more, the ComReg survey shows.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Kerry group has bought the QA Products unit from Dutch food group CSM for an undisclosed sum. QA Products makes decorations for the bakery and food industry. It has annual sales of $35m.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth less than $1.44 cents and 71.5 pence sterling.
