€12m TENDER 'MISTAKE' COULD STALL CORK PORT SCHEME - A €12m arithmetic mistake in a bid to relocate container shipping at one of the country's busiest seaports could hold up the €82m project, it has been claimed in Commercial Court proceedings.
Building company BAM Civil Ltd, which won a €46m tendering process for some of the relocation works at Cork port, says it made a "significant mistake" in the computation of its tender. It has told the Port of Cork Company (PoCC) that, after carrying out a review of its €46.3m tender price, it "discovered there was an arithmetical error" and had "omitted approximately €12m" from the price. That consisted of 6% for head office/offsite overheads and 18% for site preliminaries/overheads "such that our tender is not sufficient to construct the project", says the Irish Independent. As a result, PoCC has brought proceedings against BAM seeking a number of orders, including that it commence permanent and temporary works referred to in the contract, provide tax-clearance certificates, evidence of insurance and "performance security" for the project. The contract is part of an €82m plan to move the container shipping activity at the city-centre Tivoli location to Ringaskiddy by 2025. Around 160 acres at Tivoli is to be redeveloped for residential and mixed use purposes. The relocation project, says PoCC, is part of the Government's March 2013 National Port's Policy Statement and it has already been awarded significant grant funding by the EU.
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GOODBODY STAFF TOLD THERE WILL BE NO JOB CUTS - Goodbody Stockbrokers’ managing director has moved to reassure his 310 staff that there would be no job cuts or strategy change after it emerged the group has attracted a Chinese suitor in a deal that could be worth more than €100 million.
Roy Barrett, who has led Goodbody since 1996, confirmed in an email to staff on Monday that the company and its controlling investor, Kerry-based financial services group Fexco, are in talks with an unnamed party which is seeking to buy the securities and wealth management firm. He said the nature of the discussions would not involve job losses or a change in the company’s strategy, says the Irish Times. The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that a Chinese investment group is in advanced discussions to buy Goodbody. It came a day after the Irish Times reported that the Goodbody’s former parent, AIB, was among parties circling Investec Ireland as the industry, facing rising regulatory and compliance costs as well as the impact of Brexit, prepares for a fresh round of mergers and acquisitions. A deal to acquire Goodbody, which has been the subject of regular takeover speculation in recent years, would provide the Chinese with a European Union-regulated entity.
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DAA PUTS OUT TO TENDER LEASE OF DUBLIN AIRPORT TERMINAL 1 STORE - The booming business of a health and beauty store at Dublin Airport that clocked up sales of €8.36m last year is up for grabs, writes the Irish Examiner.
The store is operated by Boots and now DAA is looking for interest from prospective retailers to manage and operate the store over the next five years. The store is one of the flagship Boots stores in its Irish business and the retailer will likely be eager to retain its business in the DAA competition. The most recent accounts for Boots Ireland indicate the Dublin Airport store is one of its best performing in Ireland, based on the estimated average revenue per store. Boots Ireland in 2016 posted revenues of €367m from 84 stores and the overall revenues include online sales. The business is ideally located airside for the 49,589 air passengers on average that walk by the store each day after passing security at Terminal 1 at the airport. The rent roll from the store will be a strong contributor to the DAA’s annual revenues from its retail and catering concessions.
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LLOYD'S BINS BROKERS' FOUNTAIN PENS AND PAPER IN SWITCH TO ELECTRONIC TRADING - Lloyd’s of London will for the first time require all its brokers and underwriters to switch from paper-based to electronic trading in an aggressive push by the 300-year-old insurance market to force tradition-bound members to cut costs and improve efficiency.
Although electronic trading was eagerly adopted by most financial markets decades ago, it is still not unusual to see brokers and underwriters weighed down by heavy files around EC3, the district of the City of London that is home to Lloyd's, write the Financial Times. Electronic trading has been introduced only gradually since 2016 and take-up has been slower than management had hoped, leading the market's bosses to force the issue amid challenges to Lloyd's pre-eminence. "This is to really stir the market into adoption," said Inga Beale, Lloyd’s chief executive. "We need to work on the hearts and minds and sell the fact that we need to move forward and modernise if we are to remain relevant for the future." The electronic system will not replace face-to-face trading at Lloyd’s, where brokers and underwriters haggle over everything from property to cyber insurance. But it is aimed at automating much of the other paper-based processes that still dominate the market. So far, only 15,000 policies have been placed using the electronic system, about 10% of the market's total, since it was introduced in mid-2016. It is available for about half of the business that is written at Lloyd’s.
