C&C CONSIDERING SELLING ENGLISH DIVISION, SAYS INVESTORS - A C&C institutional shareholder says the Bulmers/Magners cidermaker is “actively evaluating” its options for its business in England and Wales, including selling off the struggling division, as US investors including Morgan Stanley continue to build larger stakes in the company.
Third Avenue Management, a New York-based fund manager that bought a small stake in C&C earlier this year, told its clients in a recent note C&C is working on a strategy to address its problems in England and Wales, where it suffers from a poor distribution network and heavy competition. “The company is actively evaluating solutions to address these issues, which could take several shapes including an acquisition, a partnership or a divestiture of the UK business altogether,” said Third Avenue, in a note written by fund managers Matthew Fine. The seemingly well-informed statement echoes recent comments by Kenny Neison, the chief financial officer of C&C. Last October, when C&C planned a since-aborted €1 billion bid for the Spirit pub group, Mr Neison said it could “downsize” its business in England and Wales if it failed to land Spirit, writes the Irish Times. C&C is understood to be openly telling members of the investment community it has no intention of launching another bid for a pub group in England.
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GREEKS TARGET IRELAND WITH CORPORATION TAX MOVE- Ireland has been targeted by a new Greek law that the country's government says is aimed at combating the nation's widespread corporate tax avoidance. However, critics say a new tax regime that explicitly targets companies doing business in Ireland, Cyprus and Bulgaria undermines Europe's common market and could make it harder for companies to engage in cross-border trade. Officials in the Department of Finance here are understood to have raised the issue with their Greek counterparts, says the Irish Independent. Under the new tax rule Greek companies seeking to repatriate profits from any of the three countries will have to pay a withholding tax equal to the country's standard corporate tax of 26pc, even if they have already paid tax on profits in Ireland, for example, unless they can show they were not engaged in tax avoidance. European tax treaties mean that companies should only pay tax on profits once. The standard Greek corporate tax is 26% compared to 10% in Bulgaria and 12.5% in Ireland and Cyprus. A spokesman for the Department of Finance here was unable to confirm if Ireland would join Bulgaria which has already made a formal complaint to the European Commission.
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Q1 HOTEL ACQUISITION SPEND HITS RECORD €500m - More than half a billion euro was spent on hotel acquisitions in the first quarter of the year in the largest quarterly spree ever seen. 25 properties exchanged hands in the first three months of the year in 17 transactions, according to statistics published yesterday by commercial property consultants CBRE, writes the Irish Examiner. The total represents a huge rebound in the hotel sector from the recession, with the closing of Dalata’s €455m acquisition of the majority of the Moran Bewley’s portfolio in January (excluding the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin) contributing the bulk of the total deal value. “Sixty-three hotel sales concluded in Ireland in 2014, totalling over €341.7m, compared to 33 hotel sales totalling €160m in 2013,” said Paul Collins, executive director of CBRE’s hotel and licensed division. “It is phenomenal to consider that as a result of continued deleveraging efforts, the volume of Irish hotel sales concluded in the first three months of 2015 totalled more than €500m. “We expect 2015 to be the busiest year on record for hotel transactions in Ireland.” That expectation is driven by the number of notable hotel sales still underway, including the Crystal Collection of seven Irish hotel properties with a combined 835 rooms, which CBRE are currently selling. The collection of hotels includes the Metropole in Cork, Limerick’s South Court Hotel, and Fels Point in Tralee.
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HP SUES AUTONOMY FOUNDER MIKE LYNCH AS BATTLE HEATS UP - Hewlett-Packard is suing Autonomy’s co-founder Mike Lynch, seeking damages of $5.1 billion over an alleged fraud that occurred during his leadership of the UK software group, as the warring parties moved towards a showdown in the UK courts. The US technology conglomerate revealed on Tuesday that it had filed a lawsuit in London’s High Court against Mr Lynch and Sushovan Hussain, the UK group’s former chief financial officer, alleging that “they engaged in fraudulent activities while executives at Autonomy”. It is the first time HP has launched legal action directly against the pair, whom the US company has previously accused of masterminding a “multibillion-dollar fraud” at Autonomy, writes the Financial Times. At issue are the circumstances around HP’s disastrous $11.1 billion purchase of the UK software group in 2011. In November 2012, HP announced that it was taking an $8.8 billion writedown of its purchase of Autonomy, $5.5 billion of which was due to alleged “accounting misrepresentations” at the company. In response to HP’s move, representatives for Mr Lynch said he intends to launch legal action against HP for “false and negligent statements” made by the US company. They said he will seek damages “in excess of £100m” and bring his case in the UK. One person familiar with the matter said he was unlikely to file any counter-lawsuit before the Easter break. Mr Hussain has also consistently denied the allegations made against him.
