LIMERICK FIRM SOLD FOR $150m AFTER THREE YEARS - A Limerick-based medical technology company founded just three years ago has been sold for about $150 million (€117 million). The Irish Time says that New York Stock Exchange- listed Becton Dickinson (BD) acquired GenCell Biosystems, founded by 34-year-old Kieran Curran, on Monday. The privately owned Irish company had raised €6 million to date from backers including Enterprise Ireland and investors based in Ireland, Switzerland, Monaco, Singapore and the United States to develop its technology. Corporate financier Donal O’Connell of Pegasus Capital advised the Irish company on the sale, which represents a 20-fold return on capital invested. GenCell has developed a state-of-the art sequencing technology that allows labs analyse DNA more quickly and cheaply than its competitors’ products. The company won the 2013 Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening new-product award. BD, which has a market capitalisation of $24 billion, said it could not disclose the acquisition price “at this time” but would do so in its next quarter earnings calls.
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RYANAIR AIMED TO KILL OFF RIVAL EASYJET WITH AER LINGUS BUY - Acquiring Aer Lingus would have been the "EasyJet killer", according to outgoing Ryanair finance boss Howard Millar. Ryanair tried and failed three times to buy its smaller rival since 2006. In an interview with the Irish Independent, Mr Millar also said that carrying 112 million passengers a year by 2019, is "easily deliverable" for Ryanair. Ryanair has ordered 400 aircraft since last year. It intends to carry about 150 million passengers a year by 2024, compared to the 81 million or so now. The target is 112 million by March 2019. "I think we will end up, as we've done before, getting ahead of our targets," said Mr Millar, who has handed over the chief financial officer reins to Neil Sorohan. Mr Millar will leave the airline in December before becoming a non-executive board member next summer. Mr Millar still hasn't decided what new job he'll take on.
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60% OF WORKERS ARE "JUST GLAD TO HAVE A JOB" - Three in five workers are just glad to have a job but half of those working are making no provision for their retirement, a study has found. In keeping with a number of recent studies highlighting the inadequate rate of pension provision, research compiled by investment and pension company Irish Life has found that 49% of working adults do not have a pension in place. Almost three-quarters of people (73%) would choose to work for a firm that provided a company pension, indicating a desire to save, writes the Irish Examiner. Irish Life corporate business managing director David Harney said it was in the best interests of employers as well as employees to provide a pension plan for workers. “The research findings revealed the benefits for employers offering a company pension plan. Nearly four in five full-time workers claim they would be happier to work for a company that provided a company pension. “A company pension plan is also important in attracting the best talent with 73% of those surveyed claiming they would prefer to work for a company that provided a pension.” The cost of having a pension is seen as the most prohibitive factor to saving, with half of people saying they could not afford to pay anything towards a plan.
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UK BLOCKS €5 BILLION RUSSIAN NORTH SEA DEAL - The UK has blocked a €5 billion deal by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman to acquire gasfields in the North Sea, as even private Russian companies with no connection to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle fall victim to the chill between Moscow and the west. The UK government’s move shows that the impact of US and EU sanctions, which have targeted Russia’s energy, banking and defence industries, is spreading beyond Kremlin-controlled groups to oligarchs with close western ties, says the Financial Times. Mr Fridman’s attempt to buy RWE Dea, the oil and gas arm of German utility RWE, could be subject to big delays or might even collapse, according to people close to the deal. BASF, the German chemicals company, is a potential alternative acquirer of the RWE assets, analysts say. Mr Fridman’s Luxembourg-based investment fund LetterOne announced in March that it was buying Dea, which pumps oil and gas in the UK, Germany, Norway, Denmark and Egypt, for €5.1 billion. It was the first big deal for L1, which was set up by the Russian businessman and his partner German Khan last year to invest some of the $14 billion proceeds from the sale of their stake in Russian oil producer TNK-BP to Rosneft. The oligarch attracted some of the most high-profile names in the energy business to advise him on his oil investments, including former BP chief executive Lord Browne and Jim Hackett, the former boss of US independent Anadarko.
