Aer Lingus cabin crew reject new pay offer of 10.75% over three years

Aer Lingus cabin crew have rejected a new pay offer of 10.75 per cent over three years, the Sunday Independent reports.

The deal was rejected by close to 55 per cent of staff, despite the Fórsa trade union committee’s backing for it.

Under its terms, a new “junior entrant” pay scale was to be scrapped with new recruits going directly on to the existing structure, while commission payments for goods sold by cabin crew on flights would go back to 12 per cent for all staff after being cut to 10 per cent during the pandemic.

“Aer Lingus will review the outcome of the ballot and consider next steps in relation to the process of engagement which has been ongoing over recent months,” a spokesperson for the airline said.

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Blocked hotels

Dublin City Council has blocked two new hotels in the city centre, warning there is an “overconcentration” that is damaging the “vitality of the inner city”, according to the Business Post.

City ID, the Dutch hospitality group, has been told it cannot build a 105-bedroom hotel on a derelict site on Capel Street, next to Jack Nealon’s pub.

A proposal by investment firm Urban Capital Limited to convert an existing building on Thomas Street being used as offices into a small four-unit aparthotel was also refused permission.

It is first time the council has used a new clause in the city development plan to prevent further tourist accommodation, causing anger in the tourism sector. Tourism representatives have complained that the decision will exacerbate the acute supply and affordability issues.

Shopping centre losses

Bank of Ireland suffered losses of up to £120 million (€141 million) following the fire sale of three shopping centres owned by a Northern Ireland property group last year, the Sunday Times reports.

The Moyallen group, owned by the Robinson family from Co Tyrone, raised finance from the bank to acquire three shopping centres in the mid-2000s. Bank of Ireland appointed the administrator Grant Thornton to four Moyallen companies last year.

[ Corporate tax receipts likely to be €2bn above forecast on back of increased iPhone sales ]

The full scale of the losses are revealed in reports filed by the administrator of the companies in the past month. The properties include the Rushmere shopping centre and retail park in Craigavon, one of the biggest in Northern Ireland.

AIB downgrade

AIB has had its stock rating downgraded by one of the world’s largest investment banks and financial services companies, according to the Sunday Independent.

Morgan Stanley, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York, downgraded AIB’s stock rating to underweight from equal weight with an unchanged price target of €4.

Analysts may refer to a security as underweight when the expected return is below the average return of the industry chosen as a point of comparison. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote AIB should see further earnings momentum in the short term but that its earnings were “more cyclical” than the market assumes.

Mesh seed funding

Mesh, an email security platform specifically built for managed service providers, has raised €1.55 million in investment with the financing to be used to create 40 new jobs, the Business Post reports.

The seed stage funding round was led by Elkstone with Enterprise Ireland also participating.

Dublin-based Mesh – founded in 2020 by Brian Byrne, Ralph Casey and Daimhin Kavanagh – has developed a security platform that helps protects organisations against the full spectrum of email threats, including ransomware and spear-phishing.

The new funding is intended to be used to create 40 new roles over the next four years across multiple disciplines including sales and marketing, customer support and product development.

Niel investment

French billionaire Xavier Niel and a number of his associates have purchased a Dublin city centre property from Eir, the telecoms company he controls, according to the Sunday Times.

Hennebique Studios at 5 Dame Lane was sold to Nadir Properties in an off-market transaction. The property was let last year to flexible office accommodation provider Pembroke Hall.

Nadir shareholders also include Michael Golan, the founder of Golan Telecom, as well as Pierre-Emmanuel Durand and Gaetan Taieb, investment managers at NJJ, Niel’s investment company.