Seen &Heard: 30,000 landlords pursued for failing to register tenants

Almost 30,000

landlords, according to the Sunday Business Post, are being pursued by the rental standards watchdog for failing to register their tenants. Most, it says, are believed to be landlords at the bottom end of the market who have been accepting cash payments from tenants to avoid attention from Revenue.

Datalex Datalex, the software company backed by Dermot Desmond, the Post also reports, is closing in on a major contract with Lufthansa. The company is understood to have edged ahead of rival Amadeus in the race to win the airline’s business. The Irish firm is understood the have secured the backing of IBM for its bid.

Credit union numbers fall The Business Post writes that the number of credit unions operating under the Central Bank’s lending restrictions has fallen sharply.

Some 39 per cent of the country’s 343 credit unions are currently subject to restrictions, down from 52 per cent at the start of the year.

ESB faces bigger dividend The ESB will have to pay the State a bigger dividend, according to the Sunday Independent. The electricity company will pay 35 per cent of its profit

next year in dividends and 40 per cent by 2107. The current requirement is 30 per cent. According to the paper the semi-State has paid about €1.5 billion to the State over the last decade.

Funds short Origin Enterprises

The Independent also reports that two investment funds, Lansdowne Partners and BlackRock investment management, were shorting Origin Enterprises for €5 million and €4.37 million respectively. The move puts the spotlight on Origin's management at a time of significant change for the company. Swiss-Irish company Arytza, previously Origin's majority shareholder, recently sold out of it.

Nama to sell Harcourt loans The Sunday Times reports that Nama has instructed

accountants KPMG to ready the sale of loans connected to Pat Doherty's Harcourt Developments. The company has more than €700 million in debt outstanding to the agency and a portfolio of assets in Ireland, Europe and the Caribbean. The loan portfolio is expected to be brought to market next month or in January.

Diageo to commit to Guinness Diageo will this week reaffirm its commitment to Guinness, according to the Times, amid rising speculation that it would

sell its stout brand. A frenzy of deals sparked by the merger of Anheuser-Busch In Bev and SABMiller has led to calls for Diageo to spin off its beer business, which is worth about €7 billion.

Ford poised for VW bounce The chairman of Ford has claimed it is poised to benefit form the emissions scandal engulfing VW, according to the Sunday Telegraph. According to the company an internal review reported that the US carmaker had not used the devices which cheated on emission tests.