NEWS OF ALLERGAN JOB LOSSES A SHOCK FOR ARKLOW - Management at the Allergan plant in Arklow, Co Wicklow will meet with workers this morning to discuss the factory's future. Over 350 staff are employed at the Arklow plant which manufactures silicon breast implants. There are fears that production at the plant may be moved to Costa Rica. Allergan began operations in Arklow in 1989 and just four years ago, the company announced a €7.4m investment which it said would help create 200 extra jobs.
Conor Lawlor, President of the Arklow Chamber of Commerce, says that the town has heard in recent weeks and months of some layoffs, but today's rumours of total closure are a total shock to the town. He says quite a large extension to the plant was only completed in the last six to 12 months. He says the people in the locality always knew that the Costa Rica site was being developed, but everyone assumed it was just for part of the production of the Arklow plant. Mr Lawlor says the Chamber of Commerce will do everything it can to keep the company in the town, where it is one of the biggest employers.
****
CROSS-BORDER BUSINESS BOOMING - Businesses in the neighbouring counties of Leitrim and Tyrone will meet in Enniskillen today to discuss how they can do things better. Nick O'Shiel, CEO of the Omagh Enterprise Company, says that new technology broadband is helping local business overcome any geographic isolation.
Mr O'Shiel says that the small businesses in the two counties are very vibrant. He says today's conference will look at the growth challenges these businesses are facing. He says the growth of broadband in both Leitrim and Tyrone and the skills set in the counties are creating a dynamic which has not been there before.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - UBS has reported a 12.5 billion Swiss franc loss - $11.45 billion - for the last three months of 2007. This dragged the Swiss bank deep into the red for the full year as sub-prime losses took their toll.
*** Building group CRH has agreed a deal to buy a 26% stake in Shanghai-listed Jilin Yatai Group for €200m. The Chinese operations comprise four integrated cement plants and two grinding stations in in north eastern China, with a current cement capacity of 9 million tonnes a year.
*** The FBI is investigating 14 corporations over possible accounting fraud and insider trading violations in a crackdown on sub-prime lending. The companies were not named. The agency said they include developers, lenders and financiers that securitised ordinary home loans into exotic investment instruments, as well as banks that held them.
*** The US Federal Reserve will today try to undo some of the big mess created by sub-prime lending by cutting interest rates for the second time in ten days. The speculation is that there will be a half per cent rate cut.
*** In some analysis just published here, Bloxham Stockbrokers say the European Central Bank may not respond to the US rate cut for now, but is predicting that, by the end of the year, it will drop rates by a half a percentage point.
*** On currency markets, the euro is worth $1.4770 cents, and 74.3 pence sterling.
