IRELAND'S BAIL-OUT INTEREST RATE WILL BE CUT - GROS - The rumblings about Greece, Portugal and Ireland continued in Europe this week. An unnamed German government official has said that EU finance ministers were talking about 'reprofiling' Greece's bailout loans. The EU Economic Affairs Commissioner, Olli Rehn, has said that he expects a reduction in the rate of interest Ireland is charged for the EU element of the EU/IMF package to be agreed shortly.
Daniel Gros, from the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, says that reprofiling Greek loans could mean the official aid package will be paid back over a much longer term or the terms of the private bondholders could also be extended. He says he believes some action will be taken on Greece. On Angela Merkel's comments that the crisis should not be considered an excuse for a free-for-all at the Germans' expense, he says that she is just stating the obvious. She always has to point out that the bail-out money is not free, but then adds that Germany will always stand in to help if euro zone states really need the help. Mr Gros says that the German Chancellor sometimes emphasises one argument over another. He says today's Greek strikes are quite moderate by their standards and seems to imply that the Greek people know they have to cut their standard of living.
On Ireland's bail-out, Mr Gros says that given that the EU has been quite lenient with Greece, he believes we will see a cut in the interest rate charged on the rescue money. On Spain, he says that the authorities there are anchoring down and hoping for they best. Spain is being tough on its banks, and he says that it will continue that way in order to avoid contagion from Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Food group Glanbia, in an interim management statement out this morning ahead of its AGM, says it is performing well in the year to date and is expected to deliver a strong first half result. It has also made a forecast for its full year adjusted EPS growth of 11-13%. Glanbia says the trading environment for consumer products remains difficult and input cost pressures remain high. Its statement says that as a result the business is focusing on continued rationalisation of its cost base and achieving selected price increases at wholesale level.
*** Bank of Ireland has moved closer to meeting the terms of the government's renewal plans for banks' boards and management. Five directors will stand down from the board at the bank's annual general meeting, or court, next month. Two though will remain with the bank as core members of the executive team - they are Des Crowley, head of the Irish and UK retail operations and Denis Donovan, head of capital markets. They are the first executives to step down from the board since February two years ago, when Brian Goggin stood down. Three non-executive directors will not seek re-election at the meeting - Heather Ann McSharry, Paul Haran and Dennis Holt.
*** Skype's owners, led by private equity firm Silver Lake, are set to earn more than three times their investment, for a total capital gain of more than $5 billion, on the sale of the internet voice and video communications company to software giant Microsoft. Microsoft is buying Skype for $8.5 billion, and plans to bring the technology to a wider audience of consumers and business customers.
*** Toyota said this morning that its annual net profit jumped by 94.9% to 408.1 billion yen. It said its production would begin to 'normalise' from June onwards, earlier than previously thought as the car maker grapples with the impact of the March 11 quake and tsunami.
*** On the currency markets the euro is trading at $.4391 cents and 88 pence sterling.
