A round-up of other business news in brief

Former regulator chief O'Reilly appointed to ILP board

IRISH LIFE Permanent (ILP) has appointed Liam O'Reilly, the former chief executive of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, to its board as a non-executive director.

Mr O'Reilly is also chairman of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board and a director of Merrill Lynch International Bank.

Gillian Bowler, chairwoman of ILP, said Mr O'Reilly's "long experience in financial services, public administration and economic and monetary policy both in Ireland and at EU level will be invaluable to the group".

Fees paid to non-executive directors of ILP varied from €68,000 to €127,000 per director in 2007.

Greencore move not perfect - Bakkavör

The chief executive of Bakkavör, the Icelandic maker of fresh prepared foods, admitted that the timing of its investment in Irish food group Greencore was not perfect.

Bakkavör amassed a 10.9 per cent interest in Greencore through contracts for difference (CFDs) earlier this year but posted a loss of £46.2 million (€56.8 million) on its holding in its half-year figures due to the decline in its share price.

The loss left Bakkavör with a net shortfall of £36.2 million for the first half of the year, compared with a profit of £25.6 million for the period last year.

Ivobank launches Irish service

London-based online bank Ivobank launched its Irish service yesterday and will target internet gamers and gaming firms, online shoppers and customers making cross-border payments by offering low transaction fees and multi-currency options.

Ireland is the seventh country in which the bank has launched since it was established in May. The bank, which is authorised by the Financial Services Authority in the UK, is owned by the Sampoerna family who are based in Singapore and Jakarta. They made their fortune in the Indonesian tobacco industry.

Printer Celotec goes into liquidation

Commercial printer Celotec is to close its Dublin operation, based in Chapelizod.

The firm is to go into liquidation and will hold a creditors' meeting at 9.30am on Friday, September 12th, at the The West County Hotel in Chapelizod, Dublin 20, in order to nominate a liquidator to wind up the company's affairs and distribute its assets.

Celotec is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Hasent Limited, which is jointly owned by James Harte and Gerard Gibney.

The latest accounts for Celotec filed with the Companies Registration Office indicate that in the year to May 31st, 2007, the firm reported a profit of €34,523 and had shareholders funds of some €300,000. The latest employment figures for the firm show that, as of the end of 2006, 11 people worked for Celotec.

Ovoca Gold reports 598,000 six-month loss

Ovoca Gold, the precious metals exploration company, reported a loss of €598,051 for the six months ending June 30th, 2008, due to a 50 per cent increase in administrative expenses to €602,631. This resulted in a loss of 0.14 cent per ordinary share.

The firm reported a loss of €371,971, or a loss of 0.25 cent per share, for the same period in 2007.

Looking ahead, Ovoca Gold chief executive Leonid Skoptsov said: "The next half year should see significant progress towards achieving production."

Work on Ovoca's Goltsovoye silver project in Russia is under way. The firm expects to close the project finance in the near future and is moving to appoint the lead construction and mining contractors. Work by the firm on the Kola molybdenum copper ore body in Russia has been ongoing.