The winner of the Business and Finance Christmas Quiz is Mr Noel Moran. The ESB project manager does not dabble in the markets nor has he nursed dreams of scaling the corporate ziggurat. Business is not his first passion: Mr Moran, from Portmarnock, Co Dublin holds sports and current affairs in equally high esteem.
Newspapers are his greatest indulgence, he says. Each day he faithfully peruses all the national titles. "I follow the papers very closely every day. I read them cover to cover. But when it comes to business I wouldn't claim any particular expertise."
Mr Moran (53) will receive a case of mixed wine - a Findlater's Directors' Dozen.
The participant's prize has been won by Ms Bridget Buckley from Cashel in Co Tipperary. She will receive a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne.
The answers are as follows.
(1) Mr Alan Greenspan blamed an "infectious greed" in the business community for market setbacks.
(2) Insomnia Coffee Company acquired Bendini & Shaw, the chain of sandwich shops.
(3) Twenty-six directors were listed in Independent News & Media's last annual report.
(4) Esat Telecom lost €74.6 million in the last three months of 2001.
(5) It was false to say:
the AIB Ludwig report said Mr David Cronin was "clearly awake at the switch";
the IBOA advised its members to embrace any proposed merger with Bank of Ireland and AIB;
Unidare paid a bumper interim dividend.
(6) A New York judge ruled that "price fixing is a crime whether in a grocery store or the halls of a great auction house".
(7) John Rusnak lost AIB €691 million.
(8) Mr Liam O'Reilly said "there is a perception that banks are giving a bad deal. Perception is reality".
(9) Madison Dearborn unveiled a €3.7 billion bid to take Jefferson Smurfit Group private.
(10) It was:
true to say Mr Thomas O'Keeffe was reported to have died the night before he was due to go before the High Court and subsequently spent two weeks in prison for contempt of court;
true to say Susan Keating, the former chief executive of Allfirst, is understood to have received more than $2 million under the terms of a retirement package;
false to say C&C did not pull its flotation.
(11) Ramco, the US energy group, received more than €640 million for the sale of its entire output from its majority stake in the Seven Heads gas field off Kinsale.
(12) The new chairman of AIB is to be Mr Dermot Gleeson.
(13) JP Morgan Trust Co, the largest creditor in WorldCom, was owed €17.2 billion.
(14) It was at AIB's a.g.m. that a shareholder said the fraud was akin to "Bubonic plague ridden harbour rats".
(15) It was true to say:
by June Bula Resources had lost its third managing director in under two years;
the circulation figures for women's magazines Woman's Way, Irish Tatler and U Magazine were overstated by as much as 30 per cent during the past three years;
Michael O'Leary, in June, realised nearly €47 million from the sale of shares in the no-frills airline.
(16) Mr Mike Rake (KPMG) said: "We will not do anything which exposes us or our clients to risk or otherwise damage our reputation."
(17) Mr Cuan Hanly, the high fashion designer, was owed €161,100 as an unsecured creditor.
(18) Ms Annette Condon said: "I think we'd all agree that women are still under-represented in technology."
(19) Mr Romano Prodi described the Stability and Growth Pact as "stupid".
(20) Sixty-two Irish investors paid €82.5 million for the former Bank of Ireland headquarters in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre.
