OVER $12m FROM SALE OF WALFORD HANDED OVER IN SEAN DUNNE BANKRUPTCY CASE - More than $12 million of the proceeds from the sale of Walford, once Ireland's most expensive home, have been handed over to the trustee in one-time property mogul Sean Dunne's US bankruptcy case, according to court papers filed on Friday.
The funds were turned over earlier this month pursuant to a proceeding in an Irish court, where Mr Dunne also faces a bankruptcy case, the filing says. It does not specify which court. "The Irish proceedings have been resolved and the special fund [which holds proceeds of the Walford sale] has been disbursed," court papers state. "Currently the trustee is holding more than $12 million (€11.11 million) of the proceeds from the Walford sale." The papers don't say what happened to the rest of the €14 million from the sale of the home to a trust linked to billionaire Dermot Desmond, writes the Irish Times. Timothy Miltenberger, an attorney for the trustee, declined to comment on Monday. Mr Dunne said he bought the home in 2005 for €58 million for his then-wife Gayle Killilea, but a US jury concluded last June that he fraudulently transferred the property to her as part of a scheme to shield assets from his creditors. The jury ordered Ms Killilea, who revealed after the trial that the couple had divorced, to surrender a total of €18.1 million to the trustee. That case remains unresolved.
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DEPARTING BANK OF IRELAND EXECUTIVES GOT PAID A MILLION EACH - Bank of Ireland (BoI) paid two departing executives more than €1m each over the past two years, including severance and redundancy payments.
Details of the payments - one each in 2019 and 2018 - are included in so-called 'Pillar 3' disclosures published by the bank, which provide far greater detail than traditional financial reports. The two executives were the only people paid more than €1m by BoI. Neither was a director of the bank - if they had been, their remuneration would be included in the annual report alongside CEO Francesca McDonagh's pay in 2019 of €958,000, says the Irish Independent. The bank declined to name the highly paid leavers. Former chief financial officer Andrew Keating left Bank of Ireland in October and subsequently joined CRH. His €551,000 pay in 2019 is included in the annual report because he was a director of the bank. The two next senior executives to leave in the period were former head of retail banking, Liam McLoughlin, tipped as a potential CEO before leaving Bank of Ireland in 2018, and Steve Collier, a former National Australia Bank (NAB) executive hired in February 2018 to lead Bank of Ireland's €1.5 billion technology overhaul before his surprise departure 19 months later.
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NUMBER OF CAFES, GYMS AND BEAUTY SALONS ON THE RISE - The number of cafes, gyms, and grooming premises in Ireland have risen dramatically over the past decade.
Due to an increased focus on health and fitness, the number of gyms has risen by 167%, from just 311 in 2010 to 831 by the end of 2019. In the last ten years, there has been a 58% increase in the number of cafés in urban areas, while there has only been a 3.1% increase in the number of bars in the same areas over the same period. The number of commercial properties offering beauty and men's grooming services has also increased notably, rising by 22% over the last 10 years. The figures were compiled by GeoDirectory, the database of addresses compiled by An Post and the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, says the Irish Examiner. Most of the growth in cafes was concentrated in Dublin and Cork, with just 17% of new premises opening outside Ireland's two primary urban centres. At 94%, Cork and Waterford both recorded the largest percentage increase, almost doubling the number of cafes since 2010.
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ENGLAND NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE SET TO GROW WITH SMALLER TOWNS WORST HIT -
The economic fortunes of Britain's smaller towns are set to fall further behind those of the biggest cities over the next three years, according to a report urging radical steps to tackle regional divisions.
Economic imbalances between the north and south of England are expected to widen until 2023 unless greater action is taken, forecasts from the accountancy firm EY show. Small towns across the north-east, Yorkshire and the West Midlands are expected to be worst hit by the widening gap, says today's Guardian. Published ahead of next month's budget, and as Boris Johnson promises to raise government spending outside of London and the south-east, the forecast for regional economic growth found that employment in the country's biggest cities was set to grow at twice the rate of that in towns. Should the current trajectory be maintained, EY said the capital, the south-east and the east of England would be the three fastest growing regions, while the north-east, Yorkshire and the south-west would be the slowest. Mark Gregory, the chief economist at EY who also acts as an adviser to the Centre for Towns thinktank chaired by the Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy, said the UK was one of the most regionally unbalanced developed economies in the world.
