The winner of The Irish Times Business and Finance Christmas quiz is Mr Dan Coveney, secretary of AIB Capital Markets, a subsidiary of AIB. A second-time winner, he also won the 1993 quiz.
Mr Coveney joined AIB in 1972 and before that he was with chartered accountants, Craig Gardner. He is a chartered accountant and graduated from University College Dublin with a BA degree. As winner, he receives a case of Findlater's Classic Claret. The answers are: (1) Mahathir Mohamad said: "We have decided that we will buy, at a premium, all shares sold by our local people."
(2) The annual rate of inflation in November was 1.6 per cent.
(3) Jefferson Smurfit Group generated £61.2 million profit in the six months to June 1997.
(4) It was false to say the following: James Bond was ordered by the High Court to attend the Bula Resources (Holdings) hearing; Central Bank of Ireland made a contribution to the PDs; Charlie Haughey sold his Kerry island for $4 million.
(5) A woman outside a bank in Seoul said: "Why won't they give me my money. It's all I have."
(6) It was also false to say the following: Tony O'Reilly decided to resign as ceo of Fitzwilton; Michael Smurfit took up tax residency in Ireland; Naomi Campbell joined the Bank of Ireland board.
(7) DJ Chris Evans bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson.
(8) Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur is estimated to account for 1.5 per cent of exports by value.
(9) The tax allowance for widowed parents in the first year after the year of bereavement will be increased from £1,500 to £5,000 with effect from April 1998.
(10) The retirement bonus received by Don Tidey was £2 million sterling.
(11) The governor of Bank of Japan strongly requested people "not to be guided by groundless rumours and to act sensibly".
(12) It was false to say the following: Ben Dunne was reinstalled as executor of his late sister's will; Green Property did not raise £60 million in a rights issue; Heiton raised $25 million in junior loan notes.
(13) Ardagh decided to invest £25 million in a new glass bottle plant.
(14) IAWS paid £51 million to buy Cuisine de France.
(15) The new logo for tourism unveiled by Jim McDaid was a newly-designed impressionistic shamrock.
(16) Mary Harney said "If the profession shows itself unable to deal adequately . . . then it will be incumbent on Government to take whatever action is necessary in the public interest."
(17) John Rocha is the designer used by Waterford Crystal for a range of glass stemware.
(18) John Teeling said: "It's taken a long time to get there and there's still a long way to go."
(19) It was false to say the NTMA got a contract to manage Hong Kong's portfolio of foreign bonds; false to say KPMG and Price Waterhouse agreed to merge; and true to say Microsoft did not agree to merge with Netscape Communications.
(20) David Went is to succeed David Kingston as managing director of Irish Life Assurance.
