SETANTA TO LAUNCH HD CHANNEL AND ONLINE PLAYER - Setanta Sports is planning to launch a high-definition channel and a player service that will allow for online playback of its channels as part of a €4 million investment in the business this year.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Setanta’s owner Mickey O’Rourke, said the investment also includes its recent rights deal with Uefa to cover every game in the Champions League and Europa League competitions over the next three seasons. "From August, we’ll have four or five HD channels available in our pack [three relate to BT and ESPN] which will give a hugely improved service for our customers," Mr O’Rourke said. "Hopefully this will reduce customer churn." Mr O’Rourke said revenues at Setanta’s Irish business amount to about €30 million annually. Revenues grew by more than 20% last year and he expects the business will achieve double-digit growth again this year, as it upgrades its offering and the economy continues to improve. "We made a small profit [in 2014] and we’ll do the same in 2015, despite the fact that we’re going to invest very heavily this year in three new things," Mr O’Rourke added. Mr O’Rourke is also an investor in Danu Capital Partners, a vehicle that recently agreed a €15 million deal to acquire four pubs that were part of the Capital Bars chain - Dragon, the George, Cafe en Seine and Howl at the Moon.
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RISING REVENUE HAS DUBLIN CLUB UPBEAT - The outlook for the exclusive Dublin members’ club, the Residence, is positive, with revenues to date already up this year on previous years. That is according to a spokesman for Molana Ltd who said yesterday that costs at the business, that also includes the FortyOne restaurant, have now been satisfactorily consolidated. The business, formerly operated by the Stokes brothers who were described as ‘delinquent directors’ by a High Court judge, was purchased from a receiver by businesswoman, Olivia Gaynor Long in 2010 says the Irish Examiner. New accounts filed by Molana with the Companies Office show the firm recorded losses of €536,391 in the 18 months to the end of December 2013. The spokesman said that the 2013 losses “included losses incurred in late 2012 arising from company restructuring, legacy fees and a number of one-off costs”. The losses also include non-cash depreciation costs of €296,880 for the 18 months. Today, the members’ club has over 1,000 members.
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DRAGON FORMS BODY TO LOOK AT TAKEOVER BID - Dublin-listed oil and gas explorer Dragon Oil has formed an independent-directors' committee to assess the possible £2 billion-plus (€2.78 billion) sale of the company to majority shareholder Emirates National Oil Company. Emirates, which currently owns 54% of Dragon, made an approach earlier in the week to buy the shares in the firm which it does not currently own. The value of the bid is not public although Emirates said that its approach reflected a premium to Dragon's closing share price of 509 pence last Friday. However, Dragon's shares are now significantly higher, trading at 600 pence after a huge rise on the back of the takeover talks, says the Irish Independent. It is understood that Emirates feels that the ball is now in Dragon's court. It is understood that the two companies will now proceed with talks, which could last weeks, to try and hammer out a final deal. Emirates declined to comment. A spokesman for Dragon said the company is waiting for a formal offer from Emirates. He added that in the meantime, the committee "has been been formed to look at the offer". Because Dragon is headquartered here, the company is not subject to takeover rules which would impose a time limit to make a firm bid, such as the 28-day "put up or shut up" period in the UK. The Dragon committee will be chaired by non-executive director Thor Haugnaess.
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STANDARD CHARTERED INVESTORS PRESS BANK TO CONSIDER LEAVING LONDON - Two big investors in Standard Chartered want the group to consider switching its domicile away from London because of the chancellor’s decision to increase the UK bank levy by a third, writes the Financial Times. One top 10 investor in Standard Chartered said: “The increase in the bank levy may make it sensible to move. We want the company to look at this. Moving headquarters is not easy and it may not be worth it, but this should be considered.” He said the board had discussed the issue of moving in the past and decided against it. StanChart declined to comment. On Thursday, bank insiders said StanChart was already one of the most heavily taxed UK companies, paying 9% of pre-tax profits to the bank levy last year. Bill Winters was this month unveiled as the incoming chief executive of StanChart, replacing Peter Sands in June, and investors are pressing the former JPMorgan executive to make it a priority to reconsider the UK domicile. A top 20 investor in the bank said: “This is a big hit for Standard Chartered. The bank would need to weigh up how much it would cost to switch domiciles, but it is looking more like a possible option.” The top 20 investor said Hong Kong might prove a more obvious place to be headquartered than Singapore, but it depended on costs, which only the bank could evaluate. The bank has a dual primary listing in London and Hong Kong.
