A roundup of today's other stories in brief

SWIP buys Longwood Road Retail Park for £48 million

Northern Ireland-based Corbo Properties has sold the Longwood Road Retail Park, Newtownabbey, near Belfast, to the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) for £48 million (€57.9 million). Net initial yield is 6.2 per cent.

Longwood Road is one of the largest non-food retail parks in Northern Ireland, with over 200,000sq ft of retail space.

Commenting on the sale, Stephen Kirkpatrick, CEO of Corbo, said: “The re-entry of such a high quality investor as SWIP into the Northern Ireland property market is an extremely positive sign.”

It is the third deal for Corbo in as many months. In June, Corbo sold Damolly Retail Park, Newry, Co Down, to Metric Property Investments for £34.9 million. It sold 48-54 Donegall Place in Belfast last month to real estate investment management firm CBRE Investors for £8.75 million.

H&W wins offshore wind farm contract

Harland & Wolff has won a multi-million pound contract to design and build two substation platforms for a new offshore wind farm which is to be built off the coast of north Wales.

The former east Belfast shipbuilder, which now specialises in the heavy engineering, marine and renewable sectors, has been awarded the contract by Siemens.

Robert Cooper, chief executive of Harland and Wolff said he hoped the experience the company would gain from the Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm project would help it to secure more new business.

Ourmières to take helm at Cityjet

Air France-KLM executive Christine Ourmières is set to take the helm at Cityjet from the beginning of next month, the company said yesterday.

Ms Ourmières will take over as chief executive of the airline from its chairman Pat Byrne, who has been acting in the role since original incumbent Geoffrey O’Byrne White stepped down.

She has worked in the aviation industry for more than 20 years and held various roles at Air France- KLM, most recently as the airline’s vice president and general manager in the US.

Previous to that, she ran its Irish and British operations. Ms Ourmières said yesterday she looked forward to strengthening Cityjet’s operations in both markets.

Cityjet, owned by Air France-KLM, is based in Ireland and has 45 aircraft. It is the biggest operator in London City Airport.