GOODMAN TRUST INVESTED IN DRILLING FIRM - The Goodman Family Trust has an investment in a British-registered company that was to put $85m (€161.6 million at the time) in a shale-drilling venture in Oklahoma, The Irish Time reports.
Shalco Energy, with an address in London, England, was set up to take part in a joint venture with West Star Exploration and Production Company, of Cleveland County, Oklahoma.
Shalco, by way of a Delaware subsidiary, was to invest $85 million in a project, the Oak Tree Project, which involved drilling more than 40 wells in certain lands in Oklahoma.
However, it went to court in the US in 2012 alleging that the cost of the planned wells was hugely understated by West Star and that it would not have become involved in the project if it had known “that the initial budget was so grossly overstated”.
It told the court that given how matters were unfolding, it was more likely the $85m investment would only fund 20 wells.
It sought $40m in damages and unspecified punitive damages also.
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MINISTER CONSIDERING DRAFT REPORT ON AER LINGUS SALE – The Irish Independent understands that Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe is considering a draft version of a long-awaited report on the future of Aer Lingus.
The final report is being compiled for Mr Donohoe and will make a final recommendation on whether or not to sell the State's 25% stake to rival IAG.
The Dáil must then approve any sale.
The Government has been dragging its feet since IAG said in December that it would pay almost €1.4bn for Aer Lingus. No deal is possible without support from Ryanair, which owns just under 30% of Aer Lingus, and the State, which owns 25%.
Repeated assurances that the Government will signal its intentions one way or the other have so far proved optimistic.
A Cabinet meeting tomorrow is not scheduled to discuss the bid which means that management, staff and investors will still be in the dark more than six months after IAG made its first bid for Aer Lingus.
Recently appointed Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said yesterday that a Government decision on the sale of the airline was "close" and that "all the information" supports selling to IAG.
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ABRAKEBABRA RESTRUCTURING FOLLOWING LOSSES - The directors of fast food business Abrakebabra expect the restructuring of the group’s finances and rental agreements to be completed on terms acceptable to the group, its bank and landlords, The Irish Examiner reports.
This is disclosed in new accounts just filed by Abrakebabra Ltd with the Companies Office which confirm that the business recorded a loss of €505,248 in 2013.
The firm had a shareholders’ deficit of €9.3m at the end of 2013. A note attached to the accounts states that the net shareholders’ deficit resulted from the impairment of fixed assets in 2011 due to the decline in the market value of properties.
A note attached to the accounts states: “The directors have implemented a business plan to restructure the business with a view to returning the group to profitability. This has seen a significant reduction in the operating costs of the group and the advancement of further funding by way of loans from the shareholders to assist the group meeting its obligations and to ensure its continuing viability”.
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EASTERN STATES WARN CAMERON OVER EUROPEAN REFORM - Eastern Europe is warning David Cameron against meddling with “sacrosanct” migrant worker rights, as the newly re-elected British prime minister prepares to renegotiate the terms of his country’s EU membership, reports The Financial Times.
While Mr Cameron’s election victory has been greeted positively from across Europe, Britain’s traditional allies in the east are already preparing for a fight to defend the free movement rights of migrant workers.
“They cannot be touched,” Peter Javorcik, Slovakia’s Europe minister told the newspaper.
Szabolcs Takacs, Hungary’s EU minister, called freedom of movement a “red line”, adding that it was one of the EU’s biggest achievements.
“We don’t like it when Hungarian workers are called migrants, they are EU citizens with the freedom to work in other European countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rafal Trzaskowski, Poland’s Europe minister, said: “We are ready to sit at the table and talk about what needs to be reformed... but when it comes to immigration, our red lines are well known.”
Britain has in the past countered former communist countries in central and eastern Europe as natural allies, but Mr Cameron has hurt relations in recent years by his tough stance on migration.
The issue is set to become the biggest flashpoint in Mr Cameron’s pursuit of a “new deal” for Britain, which he will put to an in-out referendum on British membership of the bloc by 2017.
