ICONIC CLERYS IN TALKS WITH US-BASED INVESTORS ON POSSIBLE SALE - Iconic Dublin retailer Clerys has confirmed it is engaged in talks that could lead to a potential sale or investment in the struggling business, reports the Irish Independent. A Boston-based investment firm, Gordon Brothers, has been linked to the Irish company. A spokesman for the department store operator said Clerys has had a number of negotiations in recent months with various interested investors. "Clerys has initiated discussions over the past few months with a number of parties in relation to securing the future of the company," he said. "We can confirm that matters are currently progressing with one of these parties. We are hopeful of a positive outcome that will secure the future of Clerys as one of the country's leading retail companies," he added. He declined to name the party the retailer remains in discussions with. Clerys chairman Eoin McGettigan, who was out of the country, wasn't directly contactable yesterday. Gordon Brothers has an extensive track record in advising and investing in mature and distressed businesses. It conducts over $50 billion (€40 billion) worth of transactions and appraisals every year, according to its website.
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SWISS BANK ACQUIRES IRISH FINANCIAL OPERATION - Swiss bank Julius Bär is set to move into Ireland following its acquisition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BofAML) Dublin-based wealth-management operation as part of an $880 million (€714.9 million) global deal. The Irish Times says that Julius Bär will acquire all of BofAML’s wealth-management businesses outside of the US, apart from its Japanese joint venture. The Swiss wealth-management group first signalled its interest in Merrill Lynch International Wealth Management back in June, when a price tag of about $2 billion was talked about, but the deal was announced yesterday at a lower sale price. Julius Bär plans to raise 750 million Swiss francs (€624.3 million) through a rights offering to help fund the deal. The deal will see $84 billion in assets under management and more than 2,000 employees transfer to Julius Bär, which will now be operational in several new markets, including Luxembourg, Spain, India and Ireland. A spokesman for Julius Bär declined to comment on the bank’s plans for its new Dublin operation, but noted that “Dublin is now on the JB map”. Merrill Lynch set up the Dublin-based private client business back in 2000, and it is understood to employ about 10 people.
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SOCIAL MEDIA COULD TURN ATHLETE EARNINGS GOLD - Olympic athletes are returning home from the London Games, hoping to extend their peak period for endorsement earnings through their increased popularity on social media, says the Financial Times. Many athletes saw their earnings potential skyrocket during the Games, even existing household names such as Michael Phelps, the US swimmer crowned as the most winning Olympian of all time, and Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. The athletes, who both are endorsed by a lineup of global brands, could earn about $50m a year in endorsement deals should they be able to extend their time in the spotlight beyond the halo of the Games, according to SponsorHub, a company that brokers endorsement deals. An athlete’s following on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites has quickly become key in determining this. “Brands always ask how many followers an athlete has,” said Ricky Simms, director at Pace Sports Management who is Bolt’s worldwide agent. “For many companies, this is the way they want to reach their target customers.” Olympic athletes traditionally had a short time frame to capitalise on their performance in the Games because they quickly fade from the public eye, according to marketing executives. But social media has allowed the athletes to extend relationships with fans by sharing messages, photos and videos.
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FACEBOOK INVESTORS BRACE FOR FURTHER LOSSES - Investors in Facebook, still reeling from the social network's disastrous stock market debut, are braced for further losses as the ban on early backers selling their shares begins to lift this week. The Guardian says that in a staggered process which begins on Thursday and peaks in November, about 1.9 billion shares - four times the current publicly traded number - will begin to be released from "lockup". Facebook's high-profile owners, from Microsoft and Goldman Sachs to U2 frontman Bono's venture capital fund Elevation Partners, will be free to sell the billions' worth of securities they held back from the initial public offering in May. "It remains a real risk that shares will be sold on to the market and temporarily depress prices as the market could struggle to absorb an expanded float," said Brian Wieser of Wall Street research group Pivotal. Among the first out of the gate will be Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley venture capital fund which bought in when Facebook was worth just $98m (£62m) and whose holding is worth $3.3 billion at today's prices. Another large investor able to reduce his position from this week is Yuri Milner, the Russian tycoon behind two companies with large holdings. Milner bought in when Facebook was worth $10 billion, and again when the valuation had risen to $50 billion.
