KINGSPAN SAYS NO PLANS TO MOVE LISTING FROM IRELAND - Kingspan results for 2011 out this morning show that the firm's revenues grew by 30% in 2011 to €1.55 billion when acquisitions are taken into account. The Co Cavan-based company's statement says the lion's share of its activities is focused on the non-residential markets of mainland Europe, UK and the US, all of which were weak in the past year. On Ireland, Kingspan said that sales volume, although at exceptionally low levels, grew by approximately 13% last year. It said that the performance of its business in the region can be expected to remain relatively stable for the foreseeable future.
Gene Murtagh, Kingspan's chief executive, says that very favourable mild weather conditions in the last few months of the year resulted in quite strong growth across all of its markets. He says that concerns about political uncertainty and economic uncertainty have eased and that the company's pipeline of new projects is looking reasonably strong. He says the economy in the UK, which still forms an anchor part of the Kingspan business, is improving, while the German market is still very robust. He adds that the US manufacturing economy is also seeing signs of improvement with new factories being built.
The Kingspan CEO says moves announced under the EU Energy Efficiency Initiative last month bode well for the company, pointing out that the refurbishment end of the company has gone from about 15% of the business to 30% in recent years.
On Ireland, Mr Murtagh says he welcomes the initiatives introduced in Budget 2012 to boost the housing market, but says the construction industry here remains at unsustainably low levels. He also says that Kingspan is not under any pressure to change is main listing from Dublin to London. He says the company is Irish based and will remain Irish listed, adding that a savvy investor will find a company wherever it is listed.
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CAREER REBOOT AIMS TO RECRUIT NEW TECHNOLOGY WORKERS - Microsoft, along with 13 companies it does business with in Ireland - like Bearing Point, DSS and HP - says there are over 600 positions to be filled at technology firms. The companies have set up ''Career Reboot'' which will introduce currently unemployed graduates to Microsoft's clients who have over 600 vacancies between them. It is looking for graduates to retrain in fast-track qualifications at six colleges and then the employers will provide internships to candidates who complete the courses.
Microsoft's managing director for Ireland Paul Rellis says that Ireland is experiencing a skills crisis as much as a jobs crisis. He says that between 600 and 1,000 vacancies are available for technology graduates and says the initiative will result in real jobs for real people. He says that electrical engineers, civil engineers, structural engineers, CAD technicians, architectural draughtsman, electrical design engineers; architectural designers, architectural technicians, truss designers and design suite operators are all suitable for retraining.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The trial to decide who should pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been delayed by a week, to allow BP to try to cut a deal with tens of thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the disaster. Less than 24 hours before the case was set to start in a New Orleans federal court, US District Judge Carl Barbier pushed back the date to March 5 from February 27. The delay allows further talks between BP and the plaintiffs' steering committee, which represents condominium owners, fishermen, hoteliers, restaurateurs and others who say their livelihoods were damaged by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill. Eleven people were killed, and 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed from the mile-deep Macondo oil well, in by far the worst offshore US oil spill.
*** On the currency markets this morning the euro is $1.3439 and 84.72 pence sterling.
