A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Energy firm to build €220m interconnector
A privately backed energy company, Imera Power, is hoping to build and finance a new electricity interconnector between Wales and Ireland at a cost of €220 million. The company believes it could be built in about 12 to 18 months, although planning permission will be needed.
It has already raised €18 million and says it has provisional approval for the rest of the funding.
New Shelbourne Hotel manager
Marriott International has appointed Liam Doyle general manager of the Shelbourne Hotel.
From Kildare, Mr Doyle has spent over a decade in the US, most recently with the Ritz Carlton. The Dublin hotel has been closed since March for an €18 million renovation project. It is due to re-open next September.
Business Objects opens Dublin base
French software company Business Objects opened its European operations centre in Dublin yesterday. It will handle finance, distribution, maintenance, and order management for European operations. The centre employs 100 staff. Business Objects is one of Europe's largest software companies, with revenues in excess of $1 billion (€851.7 million).
Gold rises above $500 an ounce
Gold rose above $500 (€425.79) an ounce for the first time in 18 years yesterday and platinum surpassed $1,000, the highest in more than 2 decades, fuelled by heavy fund buying. Growing demand, supply constraints and plans by central banks to buy more gold were expected to support prices, dealers said. Gold has risen more than 14 per cent so far this year. - (Reuters)
Bisys opens office in Waterford
US based hedge fund services provider, Bisys Group, opened an office in Waterford yesterday that is to generate 250 jobs over the next five years. The group already employs 400 people in Dublin. Its president, Ronan Daly, said Ireland had been identified as the premier growth centre in the fund industry in Europe.
State to issue €3bn in bonds
The State plans to issue just under €3 billion in the bonds market in 2006, slightly more than this year, a senior Finance official said yesterday. Healthy public finances mean the State borrows only a small amount in the capital market. This year it has raised less than €2 billion in bonds. Earlier this year, the State sold $500 million (€424 million) of dollar- denominated bonds and €1.3 billion of bonds maturing in 2020 . - (Reuters)
15,541 new Irish companies in 2005
Up to 15,541 new Irish companies were formed in the first 11 months of this year, according to a study issued yesterday by Bank of Ireland. This compares with 15,700 in all of 2004. A total of 19,116 new businesses have been registered so far this year, a number the bank expects to top 20,000 by the end of the year.
