Irish Life remains in the running to buy Davy

Irish Life remains in the running to buy stockbrokers Davy, despite being ruled out some weeks ago, reports the Sunday Times. Paul Mahon, the chief executive of Irish Life’s parent Great-West Lifeco, told analysts last week that it is still chasing opportunities including “maybe picking up a small tuck-in wealth manager in Ireland”. Bids of up to €400 million for Davy are expected by Friday’s deadline with other suitors thought to include Bank of Ireland, UK firm Tilney Smith & Williamson, US private equity firm Carlyle and Irish group Melior Equity Partners.

The Sunday Times also reports that Ulster Bank is facing a €300 million redundancy bill for the 2,200 staff who are expected to lose their jobs when the UK-owned bank winds down its Irish operations. Some staff are expected to transfer to AIB, which wants to buy Ulster’s loan book, while most of the rest will be offered four weeks’ pay per year of service as well as statutory entitlements, the paper reports.

The Business Post reports that aircraft maintenance company Lufthansa Technik has ordered a strategic review of its base at Shannon Airport, potentially putting up to 500 jobs under threat. The paper suggests that the review could lead to the business being sold or shut down, which would be another devastating blow to Ireland’s roiled aviation sector that is already reeling from the liquidation of Stobart Air, the operator of the Aer Lingus regional service.

The Mandate trade union that represents workers at the Dublin department stores, Brown Thomas and Arnotts, has sought a meeting with management over the mooted sale of the stores as part of a £4 billion (€4.66bn) sale process for the Selfridges group that owns them, the Business Post reports. The paper says unions and staff discussed the proposed Selfridges sale last Friday, after UK reports suggested the group had been put up for sale following an unsolicited bid.

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Australian law firm Shine Lawyers is seeking compensation on behalf of shareholders who suffered losses after acquiring shares in EML, which last year paid €216.9 million for Irish company, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), reports the Sunday Independent. The Central Bank subsequently wrote to PFS expressing concerns over potential money laundering and governance at the business and this news caused EML shares to tank in Australia, where lawyers down under are now scrutinising how the situation was communicated to EML shareholders.

Meath County Council has given conditional planning approval for a new €450 million, 48 megawatt data centre in Drogheda for Amazon that, together with an existing facility in the area, the Sunday Independent says will use more power than all of Kilkenny. The news comes as fears grow in Ireland over the ability of the electricity grid to power the large number of data centres planned for Ireland.