A round-up of other business news in brief...
CPL says profits holding up
IEX-listed recruitment firm CPL Resources expects profits this year to be in line with analysts’ estimates, once impairment charges are taken into account.
In a trading statement, the company said the Irish economy had seen a “marked and sustained” reduction in activity with knock-on effects for employment and the demand for recruitment and related services. Despite this, the company said it had remained profitable for the first six months of the year.
“It is impossible to predict with any accuracy whether the markets in which the group operates will experience any significant improvement in the foreseeable future, and accordingly the outlook for the group for the remainder of 2009 remains uncertain.”
GdF Suez and Eon fined 1.1bn
EUROPEAN competition authorities hit GdF Suez and Eon, two of Europe’s largest utilities, with a combined fine of more than € 1.1 billion for colluding in a carve-up of their respective domestic markets.
The European Commission imposed fines of €553 million each on Germany’s Eon and GdF Suez over a deal dating back to 1975, an agreement which was drawn up when the energy companies jointly built the Megal fuel pipeline, which transports Russian
gas from the German-Czech and German-Austrian borders to the French-German border.
The hefty fines are the first to be imposed by Brussels for an antitrust infringement in the energy sector and among the highest in total for any price or market-fixing case.
Zinc prices encourage Connemara
AIM-listed exploration company Connemara Mining told shareholders yesterday that the recent rise in zinc prices was encouraging for exploration under way in this country. Chairman John Teeling told the group’s annual general meeting that three recent zinc discoveries “with excellent exploration results” had been found by a number of companies.
He said drilling was due to start at Limerick – where Teck Cominco is the operator and holder of a 75 per cent interest – later this month.
