A roundup of today's other business news in brief
Evidence of pick up in residential market
There are hopes of renewed activity in the property market after website MyHome.ie said the number of second-hand properties that were “sale agreed” in January rose significantly.
The property site, which is owned by The Irish Times, said the figures had increased threefold on the same month of 2009.
MyHome.ie said it had observed a consistent month-on-month increase in the numbers of “sale agreed” second-hand residential properties since September of last year, going against traditional trends in the selling cycle.
The increase is being seen as evidence of a pick up in the residential market. However, it is not known how many of these sales were completed.
Bank of Ireland raises $1bn from sale of bond
Bank of Ireland has raised $1 billion in funding for the bank from the sale of a two-year Government-guaranteed US dollar bond.
Some 39 per cent of the investors in the bond were from the US, followed by 35 per cent from Europe and 26 per cent from Asia-Middle East. This is the first dollar-denominated bond sold by the bank under the Government’s extended bank guarantee scheme.
The bond was 1.25 times over-subscribed. The price paid by the bank is about 1.75 per cent above the benchmark midswaps rate, the reference point for pricing debt.
This compares with 1.65 per cent above the midswaps rate paid by Irish Life Permanent for $1.75 billion raised on a three-year bond last month before the Greek debt crisis.
Call to delay VAT on local authority services
The charging of VAT on local authority services should be postponed until 2011, Labour Party deputy leader Joan Burton told the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service yesterday.
“It is quite an imposition on local authorities to charge VAT from the middle of the year and have to rebill customers,” Ms Burton said, adding that the imposition of VAT at a rate of 21 per cent on off-street parking would pose difficulties for households and organisations.
Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton suggested there should be a “breathing space” on the introduction of the charge.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan responded that the VAT measure was due to a European Court of Justice ruling and had to be introduced in a timely manner.
Banking union seeks talks on job losses
THE IRISH Bank Officials’ Association (IBOA) has written to the Government seeking talks to quantify the level of job cuts facing the banking industry, and to devise a plan to minimise the losses.
The union estimates that up to 10,000 banking jobs could be at risk due to the financial crisis, in addition to the 6,000 jobs already lost in the sector.
The IBOA has asked the Taoiseach and Ministers for Enterprise, Mary Coughlan, and Finance, Brian Lenihan, for assurances that “any further reconfiguration of the financial services sector is properly co-ordinated with broad agreement on the final shape of the industry”.
Meanwhile, IBOA members at National Irish Bank have accepted improved severance pay, as recommended by an independent mediator, involving staff leaving under the bank’s plan to seek 150 job cuts.
