Ahern may be weakest link for hotel chain: Once again the Taoiseach's favourite hotel chain, the Great Southern Hotel group, is under the microscope. Bertie Ahern, who is a regular guest at the chain's hotel in Parknasilla, is known to be an admirer of the group and his Cabinet colleague John O'Donoghue is equally steadfast in his support.
Unfortunately, the man the Government appointed as chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority, Gary McGann, doesn't quite view it in the same light.
McGann is a very commercially focused individual and has made it clear that he regards the hotels' continuing losses as unsustainable. But how big a problem are the hotels?
Group losses in 2004 only amounted to €2.2 million. This was in the context of overall turnover of €466 million across the Dublin Airport Authority. Privately, most sources admit only a small number of the hotels are creating a problem.
The two contributing the largest losses are believed to be Galway Corrib and Rosslare. So why not just flog those two properties and use the proceeds to fund a redundancy programme and modernise the rest of the chain?
Makes sense possibly. But will Bertie and John even allow McGann to do that much? Probably not.
More grievances for small Arcon investors
Small shareholders in Arcon had salt rubbed in their wounds this week when they got statements outlining the holdings they will receive in Lundin Mining as part of its takeover of the mining group.
The back of the statements point out that the shares will be held on their behalf by Lundin in a common account as pointed out in Appendix 8 on page 141 of the offer document.
Any shareholder who wants to get their hands on an actual share certificate or transfer the holding into their own nominee or CREST account will have to pay in the region of €255 to Compushare, which is the administrator of the common account.
This is a far from insignificant amount given the small size of many Arcon shareholdings and effectively rules out the use of independent stockbrokers given that Compushare are willing to sell the shares for you at a flat fee of €12 plus a commission of 0.75 per cent.
Cologne Re drawn to 'freedom' in State
Ifsra can continue to protest at the efficiency of its regulation of financial services in the Republic but the message clearly is not getting through to some quarters.
In the wake of the Cologne Re reinsurance scandal, the New York Times informed its readers earlier this month that, "along with its reputation for innovation, Dublin has become known in the insurance industry as something of the Wild West of European finance".
The paper also noted that the regulator had yet to impose major sanctions on any Irish financial institution despite a series of "major banking scandals".
Ifsra and the Government were quick to reject the image of a lawless financial centre, insisting that the State had a "modern and effective regulatory system".
That hasn't convinced US media commentators, who continue to quote industry sources referring to the Republic as "the Bermuda of Europe".
The New York Times has subsequently unearthed a memo from Cologne Re's parent, General Re, written several years ago to explain to clients why its "alternative solutions" division, which handled finite reinsurance deals, was moving its underwriting and investment operations to Dublin.
"Reinsurers' freedom from solvency constraints [ in Ireland] permits a latitude of product design and an ability to create a wide range of reinsurance solutions for customers," the memo said. "There is a similar freedom in terms of investment strategy."
