ENERGY DIVISION BOOSTS DCC'S H1 RESULTS - Stock market listed DCC, which operates in a lot of different business areas from recycling to oil distribution to healthcare and some others, has said its revenues for the six months to the end of September fell 11.6% to €2.8 billion. Pre-tax profits are up around €1.5m to €48.8m
DCC's CEO Tom Breen says the group's energy division reported strong half yearly results. It is the group's biggest division and last year accounted for 56% of its overall profits. Its oil distribution business continues to grow and Mr Breen announced this morning that DCC was buying Shell Direct Austria from Shell Austria for €18.3m. Its oil business in the UK is also continuing to grow and the chief executive says that it has 13% of the market share there now. Mr Breen says that DCC's IT business SerCom also grew strongly in the nine month period. However, its smaller divisions - especially the food and environmental businesses - had a tougher time, as the company had flagged earlier in the year. He says the markets in Ireland have been tough.
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VODAFONE CONTINUES TO SEE MORE CUSTOMERS - Vodafone Ireland has breached the quarter of a million mark for mobile and fixed line broadband customers. Vodafone Ireland CEO Charles Butterworth says that while the company is feeling the effects of the recession, its customer numbers are continuing to expand.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The biggest company on the Irish stock exchange, CRH says that trading conditions in its businesses in Europe and the US have remained difficult, but it says the pace of decline is slowing. In a trading update, CRH says that the like for like decline in third quarter group sales of 19% reflects a modest improvement on the 21% fall seen in the first half of the year. However, it said that benefits from cost reduction measures, as well as more moderate energy-related input costs, have as expected resulted in an easing in the rate of profit decline in the third quarter compared to the first half of the year.
*** Barclays has seen its profits for the first nine months of the year fall by almost one fifth after it was hit by £6.2 billion of charges to cover bad debts. The bank's pre-tax profit for the nine months to the end of September totalled £4.54 billion, down 19% from last year. Barclays' results come after rival Royal Bank of Scotland last week reported a pre-tax loss of £2.2 billion for the three months to 30 September.
*** Grafton Group's trading statement says that its turnover in the 10 months to the end of October was just under €1.69 billion, down 28% or €660m on the same time in 2008. It says that like for like sales in the month of October were down 30% on the same time last year compared to -37% in the first six months of the year.
*** Norkom, the financial compliance software company listed on the Irish stock market, has reported a 14% jump in pre-tax profits to €3.18m for its financial half year to the end of September.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth $1.4980 cents and 90.13 pence sterling.
