ANY suggestion that corporate activity involving Irish companies might slow down in the first quarter of 1996 was well and truly dispelled this week, with a flurry of deals.
The Pounds 53 million acquisition by AIB in Virginia, Kerry's well concealed acquisition of Ciprial for Pounds 54 million, the James Crean move on the Inishtech minorities, the Woodchester/Lookers move into Northern Ireland and smaller deals involving Fyffes and Silvermines made a bumper week for the corporate finance industry.
The James Crean/Inishtech takeover is a confusing affair, with Crean only deciding to bid 550p for the 28.2 per cent minority shareholdings after another company, reliably understood to be Henry Lund's Clondalkin, would not offer Crean what it felt its majority shareholding in Inishtech "was worth.
But Crean has now embarked on a risky strategy of buying full control of Inishtech with the aim of then selling on the company. Crean has said that it has received "unsolicited" approaches about Inishtech, but it is a long way from an approach to a formal deal.
In the meantime, if its Pounds 26 million bid for the Inishtech minorities is successful, Crean will have built up another large chunk of debt.
Down in Tralee, there was a certain smug satisfaction that the Pounds 54 million Ciprial acquisition by Kerry was kept under wraps until it was time for an announcement. The food industry being what it is, almost all of Kerry's big moves have become public long before the men from Tralee wished. The principle acquisition itself looks like a good move - immediately earnings enhancing and providing Kerry's food ingredients business with a broader geographic and product spread.
AIB's Pounds 53 million acquisition of First Washington Bancorp was also received in the markets as a sign that AIB aims to boost the scale of its operations in the Baltimore Washington area.
AIB has also been linked with a possible bid for 20 per cent of the WBK bank in Poland - at a cost of around Pounds 50 million.
It seems by no means certain that AIB will bid for this stake - despite having 16 per cent of WBK already and an option to buy the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's 24 per cent stake.
It was a bad week, however, for Smurfit with a big American seller of the shares emerging after Smurfit's US associate JS Corp announced full year results.
These results were in line with forecasts apart for a talk about in detail.
After recovering from an end 1995 slump, Smurfit shares are now back where they started in the mid 140p's.
Fyffes continued the steady expansion of its European operation, paying more than Pounds 2 million for 50 per cent of the Dutch fruit distributor Anaco.
Silvermines further reduced its' Irish interests with the sale of Marine House for Pounds 4.4 million and now only has two industrial properties in Ireland. These will probably be sold within the next year, making Silvermines a wholly British company.
