A round-up of today's other stories in brief

B of I finishes sale of Bristol & West

Bank of Ireland has completed the sale of its Bristol & West branch network to the Britannia Building Society. The disposal, for £150 million (€218 million) was announced in May.

After tax, Bank of Ireland said that the sale will be worth €175 million and will be reflected in its next interim results. The bank has retained the Bristol & West mortgage business in the UK. Announcing the completion of the sale yesterday Bank of Ireland chief executive, Mr Brian Goggin, said it has realised good value for the bank's shareholders.

M&T appoints AIB chief to board

M&T, the US bank in which AIB has a 22.5 per cent interest, has appointed the managing director of AIB Capital Markets, Colm Doherty, to its board of directors.

Mr Doherty (46) replaces the AIB's outgoing head of finance and risk Gary Kennedy in this position. Mr Kennedy is also a member of AIB's board, AIB Group's executive management committee, AIB group credit committee and AIB group market risk committee.

Before joining AIB in 1988, Mr Doherty worked in investment banking in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

M&T is headquartered in Buffalo, New York and has branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

Bank code leads to 10,000 switches

The Irish Bankers' Federation (IBF) said yesterday that 10,000 people had switched personal accounts since it introduced a new code to facilitate the practice last February.

The code covers all personal accounts and imposes strict time limits for exchanging customers' information.

The IBF introduced the code in response to criticism that consumers had difficulty moving their business from one bank to another.

Irish firm lands €75m biotech deal

Irish company Project Management has been awarded the contract to design and manage the construction of a €75 million extension of a Genzyme biotech facility in Belgium.

Genzyme is a US-based biotechnology multinational. This the third time it has awarded the Irish company a contract for one of its projects.

It previously managed the construction of its plants in Waterford and Suffolk in England. The Belgian plant will manufacture a treatment for leukaemia amongst other products.

According to Project Management's chief executive, Pat McGrath, the development will employ 220 people. It is scheduled to be completed and commissioned in 2007.

Minmet to raise €1.5m with placing

Dublin-listed Irish exploration company, Minmet, yesterday announced that it planned to raise close to €1.5 million by placing 100 million new shares with a London broking house.

The company intends to price the shares in sterling to raise £1 million (€1.48 million). It will use the cash raised for working capital and to help pay for the acquisition of the Barnett Shale Gas leases in Hamilton County, Texas.

Minmet has an option to acquire part of these leases as a result of its purchase of Overseas Oil and Gas Resources in June.

Last month the company agreed to sell its Swedish gold mining subsidiary, Bjorkdalsgruvan, to Canadian player Gold Ore Resources for $8 million (€6.55 million).