A weekly business roundup
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 1
"There are many recommendations within McCarthy which don't make sense."
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan on the €5 billion in cuts recommended by the Government's public spending review group, chaired by economist Colm McCarthy.
THE NUMBERS
264,000
The number of people who were out of work in the second quarter of the year, according to the Central Statistics Office, more than double what it was 12 months earlier.
65,100
The number of people who emigrated in the 12 months to last April. They outnumbered immigrants for the first time in 14 years.
180
The number of new jobs to be created in two separate projects announced the day after the unemployment statistics were released.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2:
"The McCarthy report remains key to the budgetary process."
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan on the same recommendations. Good to see that the Government has made up its mind.
GOOD WEEK
Switzerland
The hills are alive with the sound of cash tills - thanks to an influx of hedge funds fleeing the prospect of tougher regulation and higher taxes in other jurisdictions. The defection of the likes of Quaesta Capital, Man Group and Horizon to the shores of Lake Zurich has sparked a boom in little towns such as Pfaffikon, where one butcher has reported a 25 per cent rise in business and a cafe owner says she can barely keep up with the lunchtime demand for beef sandwiches.
BAD WEEK
Private equity funds
Remember them? A survey this week found that almost half of private equity fund chief executives believe that investors are set to default on cash that they committed back in the good times, which could force the funds into a firesale of businesses they bought. It's a good job they didn't overvalue them.
Kraft
The US food giant came under pressure this week to up its £10 billion (€10.9 billion) bid for Cadbury when the British chocolatier asked London's takeover panel to issue Kraft with a "put up or shut up" order, designed to force it to make a firm offer or walk away. Looks like we're about to find out if Kraft shareholders really do love Milk Tray.
British builders
More than 100 of them were fined an aggregate of £129 million (€141 million) for dodgy bidding practices designed to increase contract prices and limit competition. Britain's competition watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading, said it had evidence that sharp practice was endemic in the industry - you could say they go together like bricks and mortar.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 3: "The board of directors has determined that the company's redomestication to Ireland is in the best interest of Willis and our shareholders."
Joseph J Plumeri, chief executive of insurance broker Willis, crosses a few linguistic borders as he explains the company's decision to swap Bermuda for Ireland. It makes a change from all those other industries that have been redomesticating out of here for the past while.
