05.12.2011

DCC's Tommy Breen saw the value of his shares increase by €438,000 last week. His shares are worth ca. €5.36m. United Drugs chairman & former head of Ulster Bank, Ronnie Kells, recently spent €38,000 purchasing 20,000 shares. Kingspan's Geoff Doherty was recently awarded 150,000 shares at a value of €6 each. Icon's Peter Gray gained €589,000 when he sold nearly 50,000 shares in the company last week. Gerard O’Hanlon stake in Kerry Group is almost €1.3m having spent approximately €36,085 purchasing shares at €25.89.

Dermot Desmond is close to breaching the 4% ownership threshold in Independent News & Media (INM) it has been claimed this week, purchasing more than €1m in a single swoop. A Desmond 3% holding was declared to the stock market in August.  Denis O’Brien owns a 22% stake in INM.

Belfast’s Limelight and the Spring & Airbrake Complex have been purchased in a joint venture between Denis Desmond’s entertainment giant MCD and Shine promotions.

Brian Lucey, the Trinity professor and economist has started a new venture Ussher Executives Education, to provide business people access to academic expertise.  Lecturers include Timothy Weithers, former managing director of investment bank UBS, Karl Whelan, UCD professor of economics and Constantin Gurdgiev, a adjunct lecture in finance at Trinity.  TCD is a shareholder of Ussher Executives.

JCI Japan Communications Inc, founder by Frank Sanda, the world’s first visual network operator for mobile phones, plans to set up an operation in Ireland.  It plans to launch a mobile data service for businesses only and wants to use Ireland as a staging post to launch pan-European mobile service.  Sanda is married to an Irish woman and has longstanding links with the country.

Ronan McNamee, mentioned last week, is planning to open an eatery on Dublin’s Fade Street with TV chef Dylan McGrath. The idea is to operate at mass-market level. John Magnier and JP McManus are both listed in the Switzerland Bilanz magazine richest residence; both are listed to be worth 1-1.5 billion Swiss francs (€800m-€1.2billion).

Finally, last week the Public Accounts Committee was informed that the Revenue had issued Personal Fund Threshold certificates to 110 individuals whose pension funds were worth over €5m in 2005.

Sunday Times, 04.12.2011 and Sunday Independant, 04.12.2011