MORTGAGE APPROVALS UP 44% LAST YEAR AS RECOVERY CONTINUES - The number of mortgage approvals in Ireland rose by 43.6% last year to 26,576, according to latest figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland.
There were 2,780 home loan approvals on average in each of the three months to the end of December 2014. This represented a rise of 57.8% when compared with the same period in 2013 and 1% on the three-month moving average to the end of November, writes the Irish Times. This would suggest there was only a modest uplift in approvals during the closing weeks of last year in spite of new rules on tighter loan-to-value ratios, as proposed by the Central Bank of Ireland in October, being on the horizon. House purchases accounted for 2,564 of the mortgage approvals each month in the final quarter, with 216 remortgages or top-ups. Some €511 million worth of new mortgages was approved in each of the three months to the end of December - the highest level since the lobby group began compiling this data in 2011.
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IRISH-BASED AIRCRAFT LEASING FIRM PROFITS SOAR TO $409.6m - Operating profits at the aircraft leasing company, SMBC Aviation Capital Ltdlast year soared by 13% to $409.6m (€361.58m). This followed revenues at the Dublin-based firm increasing by $145m or 23% from $626.98m to $771.9m in the 12 months to the end of last March. The firm last year recorded pre-tax profits of $212.23m following a pre-tax loss of $120m in 2013 - a positive swing of $332m. The company achieved the profits after paying out $194.2m in net interest payments and $3.15m in break losses. Numbers employed at the company last year increased from 73 to 113 and the staff there are richly rewarded for their work, says the Irish Independent. The 113 staff last year shared a pay bonanza of $39.8m or €352,575 each on average. Eleven directors served on the board's firm including four Irish and the figures show that the key management personnel that includes the directors and members of the executive committee last year shared salaries and pension benefits totalling $11.3m.
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HOT-POT CREATOR SEES PROFITS COOL - The Cork artisan food firm sold by hot-pot millionaires Cully & Sully is aiming to increase sales by around 16% this year. That is according to co-founder Colum O’Sullivan who was commenting on new accounts for Cully & Sully Ltd showing that the firm’s pre-tax profits dropped marginally to €2.456m in the 12 months to the end of June last year. However, the €2.46m pre-tax profit secured in the prior period was over 18 months. The firm’s gross profit last year was €3m compared to €4.35m in the previous 18 months, says the Irish Examiner. Mr O’Sullivan and co-founder Cullen Allen - a nephew of Ballymaloe’s Darina Allen - shared a multimillion-euro windfall from selling their business to New York-based organic products group Hain Celestial in April 2012. Hain Celestial confirmed that it paid €10.46m in cash for Cully & Sully and that a further €4.5m was to be paid based upon achieving specified operating results during the period to June 30, 2014.
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SANTANDER TO OFFER CLOUD STORAGE SERVICES - Santander is to be the first global bank to offer cloud data storage services to corporate clients as it fights back against the competitive challenge posed to its business by some of the world’s biggest technology groups. The strategy highlights how banks are trying to turn their vast investment in IT and the close regulatory scrutiny of their computer systems to their advantage in their battle against the new wave of financial services disrupters. “As I think how am I going to compete with all these new technology players, I can offer the same services as some of these big guys,” Ana Botín, chairman of Santander, told the Financial Times. Her comments come at a time when some companies are questioning whether they can entrust their data with tech groups that sceptics argue have been tarnished by the leaks from Edward Snowden about US government surveillance. They may be just as reluctant to entrust it to banks, however, given the high-profile problems some have had with their IT systems. Data belonging to 76 million US households were “compromised” in a cyber attack on JPMorgan Chase last year while Royal Bank of Scotland suffered an IT meltdown two years ago that left millions of customers without access to their accounts for several days.
