McCANNS LIFT STAKE IN FYFFES PROPERTY SPIN-OUT - The McCann family - the dynasty behind the Fyffes fruit company that is being sold to Japan's Sumitomo for €751m - has boosted its stake in a property vehicle spun out of Fyffes, just weeks before the landmark acquisition is due to close.
Fyffes, a stockmarket-listed firm whose executive chairman is David McCann, also owns a significant stake in the property vehicle, called Balmoral International Land. The Irish Independent has learned that Balmoral International Land finalised a €7.7m debt refinancing before Christmas. Balmoral had assets of €167m at the end of 2015, and net assets of €19.7m. The McCann family, including David McCann, are understood to have contributed the bulk of the refinancing funds and consequently significantly raised their stake in Balmoral. Earlier this week, the 'Irish Times' quoted an executive of Sumitomo's food division, who said that the Japanese firm will decide on what to do with Fyffes' Balmoral stake once it buys the fruit company. And despite the McCanns taking part in the Balmoral refinancing, Fyffes did not, resulting in its stake in Balmoral being diluted from 40%.
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AIRBNB HOSTS EARN €52M IN DUBLIN - More than 400,000 visitors to Dublin stayed in Airbnb properties last year with individual hosts earning an average income of €4,900 by sharing their homes with strangers.
Airbnb users generated an estimated €275 million for Dublin’s economy, according to a new report from the online accommodation service. The report, Home-Sharing: the Positive Impacts on Dublin, estimates €221 million was spent on goods and services by people staying in Airbnb accommodation in the capital in 2016, with a further €52 million spent on directly renting homes and rooms. Some 39% of guest spending is carried out in the neighbourhood in which they stay. Overall, 6,100 Airbnb hosts welcomed 403,500 visitors to Dublin, with guests staying an average of 3.2 nights and most of them coming for holiday or leisure purposes, says the Irish Times The study shows that 23% of guests say they would not have visited or stayed as long in the city without Airbnb. As many as 88% of Airbnb hosts in the capital said they shared their primary residence, as against 64% around the Republic. Some 53% of Dublin-based hosts stated they used the income from renting to make ends meet.
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LONDON CITY AIRPORT TARGETS IRISH PASSENGER GROWTH - The chief executive of London City Airport (LCY) is targeting further in-bound passenger growth from Dublin.
He wants renewed services between the airport and regional Irish bases, including Cork, writes the Irish Examiner. Addressing media in Dublin, yesterday, chiefly about LCY’s expansion plans, Declan Collier said passenger throughput from Dublin is growing, with 70 flights a week linking the two airports. Dublin is the third most popular route - behind Edinburgh and Amsterdam - to London City and he said Dublin could further challenge those destinations. Mr Collier - the former head of the DAA - said the London airport’s importance, regarding connectivity, will only increase in a post-Brexit, congested world, with additional runway services at Heathrow at least 12 to 15 years away. Mr Collier also expressed a desire to see renewed links between regional Irish airports and LCY, but said that would require more local support and airlines being reassured that they’ll be supported long enough to survive initial losses.
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BP SAYS LONG GLUT WILL STIFLE OIL PRICE - The world is facing a long-term oil glut as producers scramble to exploit reserves before fossil fuel demand goes into decline, according to a BP assessment that suggests that oil companies should brace themselves for prolonged pressure from low prices.
The UK oil and gas group said there was twice as much technically recoverable oil available as the world is expected to need between now and 2050, making it likely that some oil reserves will never be extracted, says the Financial Times. The surplus should spur increasing competition between companies and producer nations to ensure their assets were not left “stranded” as demand gradually shifts from oil to cleaner forms of energy. The result is likely to be “quite significant pressures to dampen long-run prices”, according to Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist. His comments, in a presentation of BP’s annual energy outlook, provide a counter point to the optimism that has returned to the oil market since the Opec production cartel struck a deal last month with some non-Opec nations to curb output.
