A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Quinlan Private Golub, a privately held real-estate developer, will build a €1.5 billion housing project in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.
The company, which is a venture of Quinlan Private, an Irish buyout firm, and US developer Golub & Co, could start work on the 90-hectare site as early as this year. The project, to include offices, apartments and a shopping centre, is scheduled for completion in 2017.
In Poland, Quinlan Private Golub is developing, managing or leasing real estate with a total area of more than 2.2 million square metres, according to its website. It will carry out the Bratislava project with a local partner, Cresco Group.
Real-estate developers are stepping up activity in Slovakia as accelerating economic growth, which reached a record 10.4 per cent last year, is fuelling demand for housing and office space. - (Bloomberg)
Tayto buys English snack group
Tayto (NI) has bought Birmingham-based Red Mill Snack Foods for an undisclosed sum. It is the second major purchase in four months for the group, based in Armagh. It is now the third-biggest crisp and snacks business in the UK.
The acquisition will take the family-owned group from £15 million (€19.5 million) turnover to over £150 million in six years.
Tayto managing director Stephen Hutchinson said: "We have a very clear vision for the development of our business and this move is part of our continuing expansion in the United Kingdom and abroad, further reinforcing our reputation as a brand builder and quality manufacturer."
Last year Tayto bought the Golden Wonder crisp brand and secured the future of more than 500 jobs in Scunthorpe and Corby.
The Northern Ireland company also acquired the Welsh-based Real Crisp company in November 2007.
Red Mill is a leading suppliers of retailer and branded snacks. The company employs more than 300 people in two plants at Wednesbury in Birmingham and Westhoughton near Bolton and produces more than half a billion bags of snacks a year. Tayto NI now employs more than 1,400 people across five main sites.
Cork air route expansion urged
A survey of 141 firms by Cork Chamber in association with Cork airport has highlighted the need for route expansion at the airport to help further growth of Cork as a regional economic base.
More than 83 per cent of chief executives at the 141 companies, which currently employ 36,816 people in Ireland including 19,301 in Cork, ranked air transportation as being either vital or very important for their business.
The chairman of Cork Chamber's aviation committee, George Barter, said the survey highlighted the need in particular for new routes to key German and Italian cities and increased routes and frequency to British destinations.
€45.1m loss at EcoSecurities
EcoSecurities Group Plc, the Dublin-based developer of emission-reduction projects, said its annual loss widened following a failed contract and a gain in administrative expenses. The net loss was €45.1 million in 2007, compared with a loss of €20 million a year earlier.
That includes a loss of €9.2 million from a contract that failed because the buyer was unable to receive certified emission reduction credits, the company said.
Sterling Waterford Holdings Ltd, the buyer, elected to take cash instead of the contracted 900,000 credits because the International Transaction Log, a system for tracking ownership of credits, was not completed, EcoSecurities chief financial officer James Thompson said. The credits will be available to sell to other customers, he added. - (Bloomberg)
