Welcome to the Business Post’s Live News section. Here’s your chance to catch up on today’s developments in business, tech and current affairs.
16.50 – FTSE finishes trading in red, while Dax closes in the green
Across the Irish sea, the FTSE closed in the red, down 0.24 per cent to 8,146.93. IMI, the London-listed engineering firm, posted the day’s biggest jump of 5.18 per cent, while Auto Trader Group tumbled 7.54 per cent.
In Frankfurt, the Dax saw out the day with a 1.92 per cent rise to 19,367.61.
16.30 – Iseq closes in the green
The Iseq All Share ended trading in the green today, up 0.98 per cent on previous close at 9,879.00.
Corre Energy saw the largest rise, up 7.14 per cent to €0.15, with Kingspan (up 4.55 per cent), Kenmare Resources (up 2.36 per cent) and Cairn Homes (up 2.26 per cent) also making gains.
Ovoca Bio saw the biggest drop, down 3.33 per cent to €0.029, with Kerry Group (down 2.59 per cent) and Greencoat Renewables (down 2.47 per cent) among those making losses.
16.15 – Revenues down at main parcel delivery firms last year
Revenue for the country’s main parcel delivery service providers decreased by 1% last year to €867.4 million.
New figures published by the postal regulator, ComReg, reveals income for the seven main providers of parcel delivery services including An Post, UPS and DHL in 2023 was down €7.7 million on the previous year.
However, the latest figures also show the actual quantity of parcels delivered by the seven operators was up 1% on 2022 levels to 140.73 million.
16.00 – Emirates reports record half-year results
Emirates Group achieved its strongest half-year performance ever, recording a AED 10.4 billion (€2.6 billion) profit before tax for the first half of the 2024-25 financial year.
This is the first financial year that the UAE corporate income tax, enacted in 2023, is applied to the Emirates Group, the Dubai-owned aviation group said in a statement.
After accounting for the 9 per cent tax charge, the group’s profit after tax is AED 9.3 billion (€2.3 billion).
Emirates reported earnings before deductions of AED 20.4 billion (€5.2 billion), slightly lower from AED 20.6 billion (€5.2 billion) last year.
Read the full report by Ellie Donnelly here.
15.45 – UK Christmas advertising attracts record spending
In the annual battle for the hearts and wallets of British consumers this Christmas one winner has already emerged: the advertising market.
Advertisers are set to spend a record £10.5bn in the UK over the Christmas season, according to industry trade body the Advertising Association and data provider WARC, with campaigns already launched by supermarket chains such as Marks and Spencer, Aldi and Waitrose.
The record spending on campaigns to attract Christmas shoppers and gift-givers represents a 7.8 per cent increase from the £9.7bn spent last year. Excluding the post-pandemic recovery year of 2021 the rise will be the biggest since records began in 1982.
Read more on the Financial Times.
15.30 – US firms will be taxed even if OECD deal fails, EU’s future tax chief says
US tech firms will be taxed on European soil even if president-elect Donald Trump pulls out of a global deal, the EU’s future tax chief has said.
Wopke Hoekstra told MEPs during his confirmation hearing for a European Commission job on Thursday that he will “find a second-best solution” if a 2021 agreement steered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proves impossible.
“It cannot be that we’re not going to tax these companies because we cannot come to a global agreement,” said Hoekstra, the EU’s current climate commissioner and an ex-Dutch finance minister.
Read the full report by Sarah Collins here.
15.15 – Paschal Donohoe says windfall surplus Ireland’s best defence against Trump’s tax and trade threat
Running annual budget surpluses off the back of gains from windfall corporation tax receipts is Ireland’s best defence against Donald Trump’s proposal to upend tax and trade policy, Paschal Donohoe, the public expenditure minister, has said.
Donohoe said on Thursday, the eve of Ireland’s general election being called, that plans to invest the state’s money from its sale of AIB shares and the Apple tax money would help future-proof the economy in the event of the Republican president-elect following through with his plans.
Cónal Thomas has the full story.
15.00 – Limerick-based Kneat sees third quarter revenue up 52%
Kneat Solutions, a Limerick-based software company, reported revenue of CAD$12.8 million (€8.54 million) in the third quarter, up 52 per cent year over year.
The tech company, which is listed on the main Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), saw gross profit reach CAD$9.8 million, up 78 per cent annually.
Total income for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, was CAD$335.2 million, up 44 per cent year over year.
14.45 – U2 firm owed €16m from debtors
A U2 company owed more than €9.7 million to its creditors at the end of last year, while it was owed more than €16 million by debtors, newly filed financial accounts show.
Financial statements for U2 Limited, a company based at the site of the band’s former Windmill Lane Studio, at Hanover Quay, in Dublin 4, lists its principal activity as the “creation, protection and licensing of intellectual property”.
Read the full report by Fionn Thompson here.
14.30 – US markets update
US markets have opened with record highs, ahead of an interest rate decisiob from the US Federal Reserve and yesterday’s stock market surge following the rapid confirmation of Trump as the next US president. The announcement also unleashed the biggest one-day rally in the dollar in eight years.
Today, the S&P 500 rose by 0.36 per cent to 5,950.63 and the Nasdaq jumped 0.73 per cent to 19,121.52.
However while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell slightly at 0.11 per cent to 43,679.99, in early trade.
14.15 – Government to hold two offshore wind auctions next year, Eamon Ryan reveals
The government will hold two offshore wind auctions in 2025, Eamon Ryan revealed at the Wind Energy Trade Show in the RDS on Thursday.
It comes after the Business Post revealed at the weekend that the government is planning to issue tenders for over 14GW of offshore wind by the end of this decade.
14.00 – Rosslare-Dunkirk ferry operator DFDS freight volume up 10 per cent in October
The total freight carried by DFDS, the Danish operator of the Rosslare-Dunkirk ferry, was up 10.3 per cent on October 2023.
Adjusted for the addition of Strait of Gibraltar routes this year, and the closure of the operator’s Calais-Tilbury route in 2023, total October freight volumes were down 5.6 per cent on an annual basis.
The Copenhagen-headquartered ferry operator’s freight volumes on the North Sea, Channel, and Baltic Sea routes were all above October 2023, the company said, following “solid growth” on most routes.
Read the full article by Eoin O’Hare here.
13.45 – Moderna reports surprise profit on higher-than-expected COVID vaccine sales
Moderna reported a surprise third-quarter profit on Thursday, driven by cost-cuts and higher-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, even with low revenue from its new respiratory syncytial virus shot.
Shares of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company surged nearly 10 per cent in premarket trading.
Moderna posted a profit of $13 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $3.6 billion a year ago. Analysts had expected a loss of $753 million, or $1.90 a share, according to LSEG data.
13.30 – Risk of EU-US trade war now higher, Taoiseach says
The risk of a transatlantic trade shock has now increased, the Taoiseach has said, but Ireland has fiscal “buffers” to see it through.
Simon Harris said ‘engagement’ with president-elect Donald Trump is now imperative, but added that he does not expect a massive outflow of US foreign directive investment from Ireland, even if Trump decides to offer US firms tax sweeteners to shift their headquarters back home.
Sarah Collins has the full story from Budapest.
13.15 – €4.4m flagship Cork store ‘unparalleled’ in Ireland or UK
Boots, the global pharmacy and beauty products retailer headquartered in the UK, has opened its first so-called destination store in Ireland after investing €4.4 million in a Cork City location.
Located on Half Moon Street, the flagship store is set to offer an experience “unparalleled” anywhere else in Ireland or the UK and will create 15 new jobs in the city.
The new store will host premium beauty brands previously unavailable in Cork, including MAC, Armani Beauty, YSL Beauty, Chanel Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, Kiehl’s, The Ordinary, Dr Jart+, Too Faced, REM, Milk, Kérastase, Redken, Ouai and L’Oreal Pro.
Read the full article by Vish Gain here.
13.00 – After-tax profits almost double at Abercrombie & Fitch’s Irish arm
After tax profits at clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch have nearly doubled to €360,000 after the firm cut down on administrative costs and boosted turnover, newly filed accounts show.
Financial statements for A&F Hollister Ireland, which operates both the Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing brands, show the group’s turnover rose from €6.3 million in its 2023 financial year, to just above €7 million the next year, ending February 3, 2024.
However, its cost of sales rose in tandem, rising 22 per cent to just over €4 million, bringing its gross profit down from €3.3 million to €3 million, and its gross profit margin from 50.23 per cent to 42.83 per cent.
Read the full article by Fionn Thompson here.
12.45 – Bank of England cuts rates but sees higher inflation after Reeves’ budget
The Bank of England cut interest rates today for only the second time since 2020 and said future reductions were likely to be gradual, seeing higher inflation and growth after the new government’s first budget.
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to cut interest rates to 4.75 per cent from 5 per cent, a stronger majority than expectations in a Reuters poll for a 7-2 vote in favour of a cut.
12.30 – Bauer Media Audio Ireland becomes the country’s largest radio group
Bauer Media Audio Ireland is the country’s largest radio group, according to the latest JNLR results.
The radio group has 2.26 million weekly listeners and 1.51 daily listeners across its stations.
The radio group has a portfolio of national, regional and local stations including Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM, SPIN1038, Cork’s Red FM, iRadio and Beat.
Over twelve months, the radio group increased its adult (25-44) prime-time market share from 29.2 per cent to 44 per cent.
Today FM was the strongest performer, capturing 8.9 per cent of the market share, followed by Newstalk with a market share of 8.5 per cent.
12.00 – Gas demand dropped 6 per cent in 12 months to August 2024 – CSO
Total gas demand in August 2024 was 3,517 gigawatt hours (GWh), 6 per cent lower than the August 2023 figure of 3,731 GWh.
In August 2024, Power Plants accounted for 72 per cent of total gas demand, down from 73 per cent the year before.
In the first eight months of 2024, total gas demand was 2.5 per cent lower compared with the same period in 2023, while gas demand by Power Plants was down 5.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2023.
Imports were 14 per cent lower in August 2024 compared with August 2023. Indigenous Gas Production was 29 per cent higher in August 2024 compared with August 2023.
Gas demand for August 2024 was lowest on 04 August 2024 with daily demand of 77 GWh and was highest on 30 August 2024 with daily demand of 168 GWh.
11.45 – Eurostar £39 ticket adverts banned by UK watchdog for second time
Eurostar has been censured by the UK’s advertising watchdog for the second time this year for “misleading” potential customers over how many cheap tickets were available during a sale.
The Advertising Standards Authority on Wednesday said two Eurostar adverts offering fares “from £39” had breached its code of conduct because there was no evidence a “significant proportion” of tickets were on sale for that price.
The finding comes less than a year after the cross-channel train operator received a similar censure from the ASA for an earlier £39 sale.
11.30 – Consumer prices rose 0.7 per cent in the 12 months to October
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.7 per cent between October 2023 and October 2024, according to figures from CSO.
This increase was the same level of inflation that was recorded in September 2024.
Excluding energy and unprocessed food, the CPI went up by 2.3 per cent in the 12 months to October 2024.
The divisions with the largest increases in the 12 months to October 2024 were Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (+4.9 per cent) and Restaurants & Hotels (+3.7 per cent).
The divisions to record the largest declines when compared with October 2023 were Clothing & Footwear (-7.4 per cent) and Transport (-2.2 per cent).
11.15 – Jones Engineering enjoys near doubling in profit as overseas business takes off
Irish company, Jones Engineering, has reported a near doubling in profit amid a strong pick-up in the group’s overseas business.
The mechanical contractor, which specialises in building large-scale data centres and facilities for the life sciences sector, saw its profit after tax jump by 81 per cent to €70.8 million last year, up from €39 million the previous year.
According to its most recently filed accounts, the company, which employs more than 4,000 staff across 19 countries, generated revenues of €1.02 billion in 2023.
Read the full article on the Irish Times.
11.00 – The Connected AI Podcast goes live
The Connected AI Podcast, a new fortnightly podcast presented by Charlie Taylor, the Business Post’s technology editor, and Elaine Burke, one of our leading contributors is now live.
The Connected AI Podcast, in association with Expleo, aims to cut through the hype and get to the heart of AI for business.
In the first episode of the Connected AI Podcast the hosts talk to Alan Smeaton, professor of computing at DCU, a founding director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, and a member of the Irish government’s AI Advisory Council.
10.45 – Audi plans thousands of job cuts outside production
German automaker Audi is looking to shrink its workforce in the medium term by cutting jobs outside of production, with thousands of positions at risk, the Manager Magazin reported on Thursday.
The job cuts are to focus on so-called indirect jobs at the company, such as in the area of development, where over 2,000 jobs could go, the report said.
It said the company is targeting a reduction of about 15 per cent. In Germany alone, this would impact 4,500 indirect jobs.
10.30 – ITV to extend cost cuts by £20 million as studio arm struggles
TV plans to cut costs by an additional £20 million this year after warning that its programme-making arm continued to be hit by the aftermath of last year’s strike by Hollywood writers and actors.
Shares in the UK broadcaster dropped about a tenth on Thursday morning after ITV said revenues fell 8 per cent in the nine months to the end of September to £2.7 billion, worse than analysts had expected.
Read more on the Financial Times.
10.15 – Bank of Ireland appoints John Feeney as CEO, Corporate and Commercial
John Feeney has been appointed as chief executive of corporate and commercial banking at Bank of Ireland.
Feeney will also join the group executive committee.
Feeney is currently head of property, project and asset backed finance at Bank of Ireland, having joined in 2023 from Mizuho Bank, where he was head of European banking.
Feeney will take over from Gavin Kelly, who will now take up his new role as chief executive of Davy and Wealth.
10.00 – Germany’s Scholz fires finance minister
Joerg Kukies, a member of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and a close ally of the chancellor, will be named Germany’s new finance minister, government sources said today.
Scholz yesterday fired his rebellious Finance Minister Christian Lindner, spelling doom for the three-party coalition though Scholz could stay on in a minority government.
The move came after weeks of bitter feuding that have rocked the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, Lindner’s Free Democrats and the Greens.
09.45 – BT cuts 2025 revenue outlook for business unit
BT Group lowered the company’s 2025 fiscal year revenue guidance due to a weak outlook for its business department, as chief executive Allison Kirkby implements a major turnaround plan.
BT revised the revenue outlook for the year ending in March down by 1 per cent to 2 per cent due to reduced sales of low-margin goods abroad and a weaker outlook in the corporate and public sector, the former UK telecommunications monopoly said in a statement Thursday.
09.30 – Wizz Air profits drop 21 per cent
Profits at Wizz Air fell by a fifth over the summer season as one of Europe’s largest low-cost carriers grapples with the grounding of its aircraft due to engine problems.
The London-listed airline said on Thursday that net profit for the six months to the end of September fell 21 per cent to €315.2 million compared with the previous year, with around a fifth of its aircraft grounded because of potential problems with their Pratt & Whitney engines.
Read more on the Financial Times.
09.15 – Nissan plans 9,000 job cuts, slashes annual profit outlook
Nissan Motor said today it would slash 9,000 jobs and cut global production capacity by a fifth, while revising its annual profit outlook sharply lower as it battles headwinds in China and the US.
Japan’s third-largest automaker cut its annual operating profit forecast by 70 per cent to ¥150 billion, marking its second downward revision after a 17 per cent cut earlier this year.
Operating profit for the July-September second-quarter tumbled 85 per cent to ¥32.9 billion, far below an LSEG consensus estimate of ¥66.8 billion.
09.00 – Struggling DublinBikes scheme gets new sponsorship
The struggling Dublin Bikes bike rental scheme has secured sponsorship from car and home insurance company RedClick.
DublinBikes suffered from a reduction in subscriptions during the Covid-19 pandemic and has been without a commercial sponsor since the start of this year following the end of a three-year deal with television streaming service Now TV.
The scheme – which allows subscribers to take and leave bikes at designated “stations”, largely in the city centre – is also facing increased competition from “stationless” bike services which operate across a wider area.
08.45 – Decarbonising electricity sector will cost €2bn annually – EAI
The Electricity Association of Ireland has published a report outlining a policy and investment pathway for the decarbonisation of the sector, which it says will play a critical role if Ireland is to achieve its climate goals.
It projects investment of close to €2bn annually in electricity grid reinforcement, renewal and resilience is needed to drive this transformation – a level not previously seen on the island but necessary, it says, to avoid fines of over €8 billion.
It marks the shared view of the sector across the island from generation through to retail.
08.30 – Airbus must ship more than 100 planes a month to meet 2024 goal
Airbus will need to almost double its monthly deliveries in the last eight weeks of the year in order to meet its annual guidance.
The European planemaker shipped 62 planes in October, taking its year-to-date deliveries to 559, according to data published on the planemaker’s website on Thursday.
That leaves it with about 210 planes that need to be handed over in the last two months of the year to attain a goal of about 770 units.
08.15 – Irish market update
The Iseq All Share opens in the green on Thursday, the Irish market increased 0.25 per cent (+23.97) to 9,807.40.
The main riser is Dalata Hotel Group which increased 3.75 per cent to €4.5 per share.
The bottom performer in early trading is Glanbia which dropped 6.67 per cent to €14.69 per cent.
08.00 – CRH’s third quarter revenues rise by 4 per cent.
Building materials giant CRH has reported higher revenues and earnings for the third quarter of 2024 and reaffimed its guidance for the full year.
CRH said its total revenues rose by 4 per cent to $10.5 billion for the three months from July to September, while its adjusted EBITDA increased by 12 per cent to $2.5 billion.
The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share, an increase of 5 per cent on 2023.
07.45 – Receivers appointed to McKillen Jnr company behind Bray central shopping centre
A UK-based loan servicing group has appointed receivers to a company co-owned by Paddy McKillen Jnr that controls the Bray Central shopping and town centre site.
In 2018, Wicklow County Council agreed to sell the property, formerly known as the Florentine site, to Navybrook Ltd for a reported €2.6 million, pending its redevelopment into a modern retail park by Mr McKillen Jnr’s Oakmount property vehicle.
Read the full article on the Irish Times.
07.30 – Freudenberg Medical announces 250 new jobs
A multi-national company that designs, develops and manufactures medical devices has announced the creation of 250 new jobs in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.
Freudenberg Medical, the largest employer in Leitrim, expects the recruitment drive for 250 staff to increase existing staffing levels in Carrick-on-Shannon by over a third to 950 people by 2026.
Recruitment for the newly announced positions is now under way, with a focus on positions in engineering, research and development, manufacturing operations and support services.
07.15 – Asian market update
Asian equity markets are digesting the implications of the Trump win with the Nikkei reversing its initial gains, now trading 0.45 per cent lower.
The Hang Seng initially dropped but has since rebounded, climbing 1.16 per cent. The CSI (+0.70 per cent) and the Shanghai Composite (+0.88 per cent) are also higher, driven by China’s October export figures significantly surpassing expectations.
Elsewhere, the KOSPI is up +0.38 per cent, while the S&P/ASX 200 is relatively flat.
07.00 – Good morning
Good morning from the Business Post.
Emma Hanrahan here with you this Thursday to keep you up-to-date with all the latest news.
Leading the Business Post website is an article about Simon Harris, who said it is his “intention” to call the general election this Friday with the likely polling day on Friday 29 November. Read more here.
Elsewhere, Donal MacNamee writes about experts who have raised concern that Trump’s plans for tariffs and barriers – and his desire to pull multinationals back to the US with corporate tax cuts – may have particularly severe consequences for Ireland, given its reliance on foreign direct investment.
