GAYLE KILLILEA 'NEEDED' €19m HOTEL SALE TO FUND UK DEAL - The multimillionaire wife of bankrupt property developer Seán Dunne planned to use the money from the sale of a €19 million South Africa hotel to pay for a €7 million property in the UK, a Cape Town court was told.
In a judgment published by South Africa's High Court in January, Judge James Yekiso explained why the court granted an injunction in October 2014 that would have sequestered the sale proceeds of the Lagoon Beach Hotel in Cape Town, owned by Mr Dunne's wife, Gayle Killilea. The hotel was part of €100 million in assets, about a fifth of Mr Dunne's fortune, that he transferred to her which are the subject of court actions in Ireland and the United States, says the Irish Times. The developer's Irish and American bankruptcy officials want to reverse the transfers to recover the assets for the repayment of his debts. In March 2013 Mr Dunne filed for bankruptcy in Connecticut, where he and Ms Killilea moved in 2010, with debts of $942 million, about €700 million at the time, including about €250 million to the National Asset Management Agency. He was declared bankrupt again, in Ireland, four months later in a court action taken by Ulster Bank.
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ONE AND TWO CENT COINS TO BE WITHDRAWN - The Government is set to approve the removing of one and two cent coins from circulation nationally following local trials which have been deemed a "massive success". Government sources have told the Irish Independent that the matter is to be brought to Cabinet tomorrow. It is understood Finance Minister Michael Noonan will bring the memo recommending the withdrawal of the coins, which cost more to mint than they are worth. Last year, the National Payments Plan (NPP) recommended that a trial in Wexford in which one and two cent coins were taken out of circulation be rolled out nationally. One and two cent coins are minted more than other coins, but go out of circulation quickly as people stockpile them. The results of the trial, which ran from September 16 to November 17, 2013, showed strong support for the measure from both consumers and retailers. During the trial, retailers rounded cash transactions to the nearest five cent at the cash register, removing the need for one and two cent coins in change. Five EU member states, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Hungary, have already adopted a rounding policy.
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BUSINESS GROUPS URGE PROBE TO ‘BREAK UP’ AIB - Business and consumer groups have called on the Government to launch a probe into the grip that Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland have over Irish banking and to consider the possibility of breaking up AIB to boost competition, says the Irish Examiner. Consumer advocates the Consumers’ Association of Ireland and small business group ISME say the Government has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to unpick an effective banking duopoly and hive off parts of AIB to promote competition, as it ponders the best timing to offload the huge taxpayers’ stakes in the banks. The Small Firms’ Association said it wants the newly merged watchdog - the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission - to insist that the banks here publish a full list of their business banking fees. The calls come after the influential think-tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute, last week flagged serious concerns about whether the banks are meeting the needs of consumers and businesses at a time when the economy is rapidly emerging from the crisis.
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EUROPEAN OIL COMPANIES STRENGTHEN RUSSIAN LINKS DESPITE EU SANCTIONS - Europe’s biggest oil groups are extending business deals with their Russian energy partners despite this month’s EU vote to continue imposing sanctions, highlighting how western companies are learning to live with the restrictions placed on Moscow. BP is close to agreeing a deal to acquire a 20% stake in a Siberian oilfield from state-owned Rosneft that could be worth $700m, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times, while Eni and Statoil have received approval from European capitals to continue work on their joint ventures with Rosneft. Shell is also still working on its Salym joint venture with Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the Russian gas giant, and has applied for approval from the Dutch government for other projects. The moves come as the St Petersburg international economic forum, Russia’s answer to Davos, takes place this week under a rather different mood from last year when sanctions were first imposed. This year there is a more positive atmosphere as international companies try to work around the sanctions with their Russian partners.
