WE'RE COMMITTED TO CORPORATION TAX REFORM, BUT 12.5% RATE IS HERE TO STAY - Ireland has made significant changes to its corporation tax code in recent years to ensure that the right amount of tax is paid by the right companies in the right places.
Often we have received little acknowledgement of this, writes Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe in an opinion piece in the Irish Independent today. By eliminating stateless companies and bringing an end to the so-called 'Double Irish', we have closed off gaps which inadvertently allowed companies to exploit differences in global tax rules to produce very low tax rates across their global operations. We have made great strides to ensure a fairer and more transparent tax system exists here in Ireland, for businesses of all kinds. We are one of only 23 jurisdictions in the world to be fully compliant with new international best practice by the Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information and were one of the first to introduce country to country reporting, making it easier to track who is, and who isn't, paying their fair share of taxes. Ireland has had a robust corporate tax system and our longstanding 12.5% corporation tax rate on trading income has been a cornerstone of our economic policy; one that has contributed to our economic progress, that offers certainty to business and which we will continue to robustly defend on all fronts.
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MAINSTREAM RENEWABLE POWER MAY BE SOLD ON BY 2020 - Dublin-based Mainstream Renewable Power will more likely be sold on from as soon as 2020 rather than go through an initial public offering (IPO), according to the company’s chief executive, Andy Kinsella.
Speaking to The Irish Times as the company prepares for an annual investor briefing on Monday following a transformational sale of a Scottish offshore wind farm development this year for up to €650 million, Mr Kinsella said the group’s geographical spread, in both emerging and developed markets, may be difficult for stock market investors "to get their heads around". "Also, we’re a company that develops projects and then sells on. While we have the ability to retain equity positions in projects, we’re not focused on generating long-term repeatable revenue streams, which is what the IPO market would be looking for." Mr Kinsella said, however, that the company would appeal strongly to trade and strategic buyers. "But I still think we’re taking about the back end of the decade, or early in the next decade," he said. Mainstream, set up by businessman Eddie O'Connor a decade ago, confirmed in a recent shareholder letter that it will proceed with a grey market for its shares later this year, and that the company sees its shares as being worth up to €11.70 each, after a planned buyback of stock owned by legacy investors Barclays and Japan’s Marubeni.
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RISKS FROM POOR SUCCESSION MANAGEMENT AMONG CONCERNS FOR IRISH AGRIBUSINESS - Despite the looming commercial spectres of Brexit and poor rural broadband, the risks from poor succession management are an increasing concern for Irish food and agribusiness SMEs.
Recent research shows 83% of enterprises in the industry do not have a clear succession plan in place, indicating either that owners have not thought about it, or a lack of interest from the next generation, says the Irish Examiner. While optimism levels are high for the coming year, the report highlights a number of concerning issues, including the fact that almost half of businesses are not planning for the implications of Brexit. For the time being, these worries are tempered by a buoyant domestic economy, from where most of their sales are derived. While four in 10 medium-sized companies are planning to hire next year, 63% of employers indicated the difficulties finding the right people to run the business. "From a longer-term planning perspective, clear succession plans are rare, with 83% of the food and agribusiness SMEs not having a defined succession plan," says David Leydon, head of food and agribusiness at accounting advisory firm Ifac. However, 40% of businesses are open to selling in the next five years, which is higher than might be expected in the sector, he added.
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SACKLER FAMILY OWNERSHIP OF SECOND OPIOID MAKER REVEALED - The billionaire Sackler family, which has been blamed for fuelling the US opioid addiction epidemic, owns a second drugmaker that churns out millions of addictive painkiller pills every year, the Financial Times can reveal.
The Sacklers are best known as the owners of Purdue Pharma, the privately held drugmaker that makes the now infamous opioid painkiller OxyContin, which has been described as "heroin in a pill". However, an FT analysis of company registration documents has established that the family also owns Rhodes Pharma, a little-known Rhode Island-based drugmaker that is among the largest producers of off-patent generic opioids in the US. The Sacklers have made billions of dollars from the sale of opiate painkillers. In 2016, Forbes calculated their combined wealth at $13 billion, almost all of it derived from their drugmaking interests, and said the fortune was shared among 20 family members. Purdue Pharma has always insisted that its drug OxyContin cannot be considered a prime culprit in the crisis because it accounts for only 1.7% of overall opioid prescriptions in the US. However, Rhodes and Purdue combined accounted for 14.4 million opioid prescriptions in 2016, according to figures seen by the FT, giving them a total share of 6% of the US opioid market.
