LENIHAN AUTHORISED SIGNIFICANT ANGLO FEE RISES - Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan authorised significantly increased salaries for senior Anglo Irish Bank staff last year because of the "increased workload" facing the bank, says the Irish Times. Salaries for the chief executive of Anglo and other banks which availed of the Government's credit guarantee were capped at €500,000 by the Minister last year. The recommended pay levels for other senior executives were set by an independent committee established to examine bankers' pay, known as the Covered Institutions Remuneration Oversight Committee. Following discussions with Anglo Irish Bank, Mr Lenihan increased salaries for the chairman and board members of Anglo to levels above that recommended by the committee, records show. The chairman's fee was increased from €218,000 to €250,000, while non-executive directors' fees were increased from €44,000 to €73,000. A letter to Anglo from the Department of Finance states that the Minister agreed to the fees in excess of those recommended by the independent committee on the basis of the "exceptional circumstances" of the bank and the " resulting increased workload for the board". In addition, an unpublished internal memo indicates that the Minister or his officials had been proposing to cut the pay of Anglo's chief executive to € 394,000. He later agreed to a salary cap of €500,000, in common with other major banks.
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BUSINESSMEN STAND BEHIND THE MERRION - Businessmen Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton have provided a letter of comfort promising their continued support and cash for the loss-making Merrion Hotel in Dublin city centre, writes the Irish Independent. The hotel, a popular haunt with politicians and senior civil servants, is posting an annual loss of €503,603, with turnover tumbling from €16.8m to €13.3m, according to its accounts that have just been filed. The balance sheet of the hotel, for 2009, shows a shareholder's deficit of €2.4m after losses in 2009 and 2008. The hotel has managed to reduce its after tax losses from €624,147 to €572,946, but conditions remain difficult for hotels, particularly at the top end of the market. Mr Naughton and Mr Quinn, both associated with electrical goods group, Glen Dimplex, have large net worths and their support is regarded as crucial for the property, which is situated across the road from government buildings.
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RETAILERS AND CELEBRITY CHEFS SET FOR CITY BATTLE - The first major retail development in central London since the financial crisis will open its doors on October 28 to many of the high street's biggest names, and see the country's two most famous celebrity chefs going head to head with new restaurants. The London Independent says that chains including Superdry, Topshop, Next, Marks & Spencer Simply Food, Reiss and Hobbs have signed up to take retail space in the One New Change shopping mall at Cheapside, near St Paul's Cathedral. Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay are due to open restaurants in the centre, which covers 220,000 square feet of retail and food space, and has 330,000 sq ft of offices. While the outlook for consumer spending is uncertain across much of Britain, One New Change should be sheltered by the return of bumper City bonuses this year and an annual influx of 6.3 million foreign visitors to the Square Mile. The property giant Land Securities acquired the lease on the building in 2000 from the City of London Corporation. It said the scheme's 60 retail units were 96% let or in the hands of solicitors, although only 40% of the offices are let so far. It will be the City's biggest retail development and the first big scheme to open in central London since Cardinal Place, also developed by Land Securities, was built near Victoria station in 2005.
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DWINDLING MINES SPELL HOT TIMES FOR COPPER - Hedge funds are not the only ones that have been burned by their activities in commodity markets recently. This week a man was admitted to hospital in northern England after receiving an electric shock cutting through a live wire carrying 11,000 volts trying to steal the copper it contained. Thefts of copper cables and rods are increasing as tightness in the physical copper markets has caused prices to rebound, says the Financial Times. 'This year we've seen a massive increase in theft from our sub-station sites,' says Phil Wilson, customer operations manager for one of Eon's regional electricity distribution networks in the UK, which suffered 37 incidents in Coventry in the past week alone. Thefts may be about to get much worse. While copper prices have rebounded to $7,400 a tonne from just above $6,000 in early June, sentiment among investors, analysts and industry executives is almost unanimously bullish. 'We continue to feel very, very positive about the outlook for copper,' says Richard Adkerson, chief executive of Freeport McMoran, the world's largest listed copper miner. The reason is supply: the superstar copper mines of the 1980s, such as Escondida in Chile, may have already seen their best days and few believe there is enough new production coming onstream in the next few years to meet even modest demand growth.
