News In Brief

## New research shows that Irish mortgage holders are uniquely vulnerable to rising interest rates compared to many of their EU counterparts, because of the prevalence of variable rate mortgages. This follows the Financial Services Ombudsman's warning yesterday that lenders should not try to move people off low-rate tracker mortgages to higher interest variable ones. According to figures from the European Mortgage Federation, 84% of mortgages issued in Ireland in the last six months of 2009 were variable. The Irish Mortgage Corporation warns that this makes Ireland one of the most sensitive mortgage markets in the EU, as long-term fixed-rate home loans are more common in the rest of the union. In Germany almost one quarter of home loans issued are fixed for more than ten years. Up to 80% of home loans in Belgium are fixed for the duration of the loan. RTE

## EBS Building Society, the country s biggest customer-owned lender, set an August 9 deadline for a second round of takeover bids, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Four companies submitted initial offers as EBS seeks to raise about 785m euros to meet capital standards set by the country s financial regulator. The company may choose a buyer by the end of August, said one person, who declined to comment because the process hasn t yet been completed. JC Flowers and Co, the US leveraged buyout firm, Doughty Hanson, a British rival, Irish Life and Permanent and Cardinal Asset Management are the four parties involved in the first round of bidding. Irish Examiner

## Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary sold nearly 20m euro of shares in the airline yesterday. The carrier's shares have soared in recent weeks amid confirmation of a 500m euro dividend that will be paid to shareholders in the autumn and a robust financial performance. Mr O'Leary, who before yesterday owned more than 60 m shares, or 4.04pc of Ryanair, is understood to have offloaded five million shares at 3.90 euro each. That resulted in a gain of 19.5m euro, which is then subject to capital gains tax of 20pc, making for a 3.9m euro windfall for the exchequer and leaving Mr O'Leary with 15.6m euro. Irish Independent

## The bank loans associated with the disastrous 411m euro acquisition of the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, Dublin, in 2006 by a consortium including the Dublin Docklands Development Association have been moved to NAMA. The agency has now asked the consortium, Becbay, to submit a business plan before the end of this month. However, the shareholders in the consortium are not co-operating with each other in relation to Becbay s dealings with the agency. Irish Times

## SIPTU shop stewards from the four local authorities in Dublin are to meet today to discuss the planned outsourcing of waste collection by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to a private operator. The meeting will also be given an update on talks to try to resolve the dispute. Workers in South Dublin, Fingal and Dublin City Councils have already voted to take industrial action in support of their colleagues in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown if the talks fail. RTE

## Element6, the industrial diamond manufacturer majority-owned by De Beers that last year shelved a plan to close its plant in Shannon, made a loss of USD 40.5m (29m euro) in 2008 as it paid out nearly USD 18m in redundancy and restructuring costs and administrative expenses rose to USD 151m from USD 131m. Accounts just filed for the business at the Companies Office show that turnover at the business fell from USD 358.3m in 2007 to USD 351m in 2008. Irish Independent

## Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has insisted a train service will run between Dublin and Navan by 2016, despite the project not being mentioned in the revised capital spending programme. Asked if major projects outside Dublin had been put on hold following the government s announcement on Monday of a 39bn euro investment plan, Mr Dempsey insisted construction on the railway link would go ahead once planning permission was granted. The next stage for the Navan rail line is that they submit their planning permission, he said. I m not sure how long it will take to get through the planning stage bit once it gets through the planning process construction will start immediately.