Occasional humour at 'fascinating' Fyffes caseThe marathon Fyffes/DCC insider dealing case is many things but a comedy is not one of them. With three senior counsel and a line-up of expert witnesses for each side, some of whom are economists, occasions of humour, as might be expected, are infrequent.

Nevertheless, the case managed to raise a laugh on Wednesday. Michael Cush SC, for DCC, was painstakingly taking an expert witness for Fyffes through the details of a model that had been constructed by the witness for predicting the Fyffes share price. Prof Kenneth Lehn, a former chief economist for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, had produced a graph showing Fyffes' actual share price mapped against that predicted by his model.

The barrister said a previous witness, a stockbroker, had described Fyffes as a boring share. But the professor did not agree. "I find all this fascinating," he said, sitting up straight in his chair and looking forward to the next detailed question.

The judge joined in the general laughter. And then it was back to the hard slog.

ESB facing two reviews, with a third in the offing

The ESB could soon be facing more enquiries than embattled Minister Martin Cullen.

So far the company is facing two searching reviews and now a third one could be on the way. The first one comes from the minister with responsibility for the company, Noel Dempsey. He is hoping to hire consultants shortly to take a look at the company's future and its role in the energy market.

The consultants will be given about six months to study the ESB and investigate whether it should be broken up in an attempt to deal with its alleged dominant position.

Meanwhile, the energy regulator, Tom Reeves, is enquiring into the company's profitability and return on capital, particularly from those assets which are monopolies, such as ESB Networks.

As if this wasn't enough, the EU Commission this week said it might also take a closer look at European gas and electricity markets to see if they were operating competitively.

While its competition directorate did not mention the Republic, the EU's energy competition director, Maria Rehbinder, said if the enquiry took place it would be extremely thorough.

But in case ESB or Bord Gáis executives feel this won't effect them, she said any company which did not comply when asked for information would be fined. She said this could possibly be based on some portion of turnover no less.

Maybe in a 'bid to save money and resources, Mr Reeves, Mr Dempsey and Ms Rehbinder could merge their enquiries and save the EU and Irish taxpayers some money?This week it emerged that consumer products group Punch Industries has switched from limited liability to unlimited liability status, joining a number of well-known names in Irish business, such as Dunnes and Glen Dimplex, in the process.

Current Account understands that the company is doing this purely for competitive reasons.

Punch pulls back from Companies Office glare

Unlimited liability companies are not required to file accounts with their annual returns to the Companies' Registration Office (CRO), and so do not have to make sensitive financial information available to the prying eyes of the public.

In this case, the company, which makes shoe polish and household products, is afraid of the prying eyes of other players in those businesses, who apparently keep a close watch on what their competitors are doing.

And Punch Industries has been doing very well. Its last (literally) set of accounts shows that sales in 2002 grew 14 per cent to €40.7 million. Operating profit was €4 million, and a once-off gain from the sale of assets boosted this to €6.4 million at pre-tax profit level.

At the end of the year, it had €12 million in the bank and shareholders' funds of more than €25 million.