A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Viridian says it is meeting forecasts
Viridian, the energy company, said yesterday the company was trading in line with expectations. Its largest subsidiary, Northern Ireland Electricity, expects to report good progress from each of its regulated businesses.
Meanwhile the subsidiary active in the Republic, Viridian Power and Energy, said it hoped to complete a second power station at Huntstown, north Co Dublin, by autumn 2007. Its sales business in the Republic, Energia, is now supplying several large customers with gas and electricity.
Viridian will report results for the six months to the end of September on November 22nd.
Greenstar to put €12m into plant
Waste management company Greenstar is to invest €12 million in a bio-energy strategy, which will see the company produce electricity from landfill gas.
Greenstar, which is owned by NTR, announced the four-year investment yesterday at the opening of its first gas-to-energy plant in Co Kildare. The energy will be sold to Airtricity, which will in turn distribute it to the national grid. Airtricity is also a unit of NTR.
Storms to cost Munich Re €650m
The world's biggest reinsurer, Munich Re, said yesterday that hurricanes Katrina and Rita would cost it a net €650 million.
The company said it can now only hit its 2005 earnings goal by selling its stake in German bank HVB.
Munich Re said that Katrina could cost about €500 million, after retrocessions and tax, following an examination of the fallout from the storm. The company said it expects an overall market loss from Katrina of up to $30 billion.
It also said that the net loss from Rita, a weaker storm that followed Katrina this month, could be around €150 million. - (Reuters)
South Wharf losses decrease
Trading losses for the first six months of the year at quoted South Wharf dropped by €305,000 to €648,000, the company said yesterday. Turnover for the same period dropped by €235,000 to €228,000.
The company wants to acquire the freehold to its site in Ringsend from its landlord, Dublin Port Company, which has begun High Court proceedings to repossess the site.
Prasifka to unveil airport charges
The aviation regulator, Bill Prasifka, unveils a new package of airport charges today in Dublin, although he is not expected to grant the 50 per cent increase sought by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
Last week authority chairman Gary McGann said he would like to see the charges rise by €2.50 to €7.50 per passenger.
Glencar's loss widens in first half
Mining group Glencar, whose shares started trading on London's AIM earlier this week, said yesterday its loss widened in the first half of this year to $339,198. This compares with a loss of $312,539 in the year-earlier period. Glencar, which mines for gold in west Africa, said it has sufficient cash resources to complete drilling programmes at Sankarani in Mali and Asehba in Ghana.
