A round-up of other business news in brief

EBS secures €6m judgments

A property developer has consented to an order for judgment for €4.39 million against him over unpaid loans granted by the Educational Building Society.

The EBS secured the judgment from Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the Commercial Court yesterday against Denis O’Connell, Cummer, Tuam, Co Galway.

In the same proceedings, Patrick Leonard BL, for the EBS, also secured an order for judgment, on consent, for an additional €1.55 million against Brendan and Susan Quirke, also of Cummer, Tuam.

The proceedings arose from failure to repay loans made by the EBS to the defendants in 2007 and 2008. The bulk of the loans were advanced to Mr O’Connell for residential and development purposes and to refinance existing loans. The EBS demanded repayment from all three defendants in October 2009 and when payment was not received, it brought the legal action. The defendants previously asked for mediation but Mr Leonard told the judge the case had settled on the basis of consent to judgment.

Average GDP up 0.8% in OECD

Gross domestic product in the 30 OECD countries rose by 0.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2009 compared to 0.6 per cent in the previous quarter, but slowed to 0.1 per cent in the euro-zone areas, according to OECD data released yesterday.

The US and Japan led the overall OECD growth, with GDP rising by 1.4 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

However, growth in euro- zone countries slowed to 0.1 per cent from 0.4 per cent the previous quarter.

Kerry Foods 'most valuable brand'

Kerry Foods is Ireland’s most valuable brand, according to a survey of the world’s leading 500 brands published by consultancy Brand Finance.

Kerry secured the 414th spot in the top 500, up from 482nd place in the previous edition of the Brand Finance Global 500 index. It was the only Irish company to make the cut. Neither Guinness nor Ryanair had strong enough revenues, but Brand Finance said the latter might make the list in the next few years.