Inside the world of business

Press corps left in the dark after Schauble's flying visit

THERE WERE precious few bones thrown to the assembled press corps at Farmleigh in Dublin yesterday following a brief visit to the capital by German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

The German minister was in town to meet Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin before heading to Oxford in England to deliver a speech on the future of Europe.

Schäuble was keen to communicate how impressed he is with Ireland’s efforts to restructure the economy and said Germany would help us in this process.

Yet the German finance minister has been one of the key figures in the euro zone to rule out any deal via the European Stability Mechanism on the legacy debts of our pillar banks. This position was reinforced by German chancellor Angela Merkel at the Brussels summit earlier this month.

Yesterday, Schäuble preferred to reference the joint statement from Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the German chancellor following the summit, which acknowledged that Ireland was a “special case”.

He also stated that it was important to “avoid” any announcements that might be misunderstood by the markets.

Make of that what you will.

But he was rather more bullish on Ireland’s prospects of exiting the EU-IMF-ECB troika bailout at the end of 2013.

“No problem at all. I don’t even see a reason for this question,” said the minister in response to a question.

This is good to hear, although slightly disingenuous.

Securing deals on our legacy bank debts and the Anglo promissory notes are key to restoring Ireland’s finances on to a sustainable footing and bond markets opening up to us again at affordable rates.

It is heartening that the German minister is “100 per cent confident” that Ireland won’t need a second bailout programme.

Here’s hoping the bond markets take the same view when that day arrives.

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Today

The Central Bank is due to release the October bank lending survey at 11am, which will give the latest figures for lending to business and consumers by Irish banks .

Penguin sale sparks speculation about future of 'Financial Times'

HE HASN’T gone away you know.

The reported last minute approach from News Corporation for Penguin books over the weekend shows that Rupert Murdoch is very much in the picture in terms of the global media landscape.

Ahead of the planned split between News Corporation’s broadcasting and print divisions, Newscorp’s publishing arm, Harper Collins, is reported to have planned a £1 billion (€1.24 billion) cash offer for Penguin, according to the NewsCorp-owned Sunday Times.

In the end, the planned deal between Penguin’s owner Pearson, and German company Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House which was flagged last week, was confirmed yesterday.

The new entity, to be known as Penguin Random House, will see Random House head Markus Dohle take up the role of chief executive, while Penguin chief executive John Makinson will be chairman.

The merger will result in the creation of the largest book publisher in the UK and US, with market share of up to 30 per cent . The two publishers had combined sales of about £2.5 billion last year.

While the merger reflects the changing nature of the book trade as it battles with the challenges of the decline of physical book-buying and the rise of e-books , the decision by Pearson to sell Penguin also raises questions about the future direction of the educational publisher.

Ever since the announcement that Dame Marjorie Scardino is to step down as chief executive of Pearson by the end of the year, speculation has grown as to the future not only of Penguin, but also of the Financial Times. Her successor, John Fallon, is the current head of Pearson’s International Education division and is perceived by many as being more likely to sell the paper than his predecessor.

With Pearson’s educational publishing division representing about 80 per cent of operating profits, all eyes will now be on Pearson’s plans for the FT, which is increasingly taking on the appearance of a “non-strategic” asset in terms of Pearson’s overall portfolio.