Ardagh Group’s riskiest bonds have fallen below 20 cents on the euro for the first time as investors brace themselves for an update this week on how the glass and metal containers group plans to reduce the burden of its $12 billion-plus (€11 billion) debt pile. Some €795 million of bonds issued by a holding company at the top of the group’s complex corporate structure – called ARD Finance – and due for repayment in 2027 dipped to 9.4c last week. They had been trading at close to 80c a year ago. Joe Brennan has the details.
Working older is a prospect for more of us as pension ages increase in tandem with life expectancy, writes Emma Jacobs, and, before anybody points it out, this isn’t about special pleading – the young might not believe it, but ageing happens to them too.
The Government should give businesses at least a six-month period of grace after the official start of the landmark auto enrolment (AE) pension scheme to get their systems up to speed, according to staffing agency Excel Recruitment. Excel said that many Irish employers will struggle with the implementation of the upcoming pension (AE) system, which is officially scheduled to start in early 2025 and immediately capture 750,000 workers without occupational or private pension plans. Joe Brennan reports.
Supermac’s chief Pat McDonagh wants the Government to reinstate the reduced rate of VAT for food businesses as distinct from hospitality in general. He said the industry was struggling to deal with a jump in operating costs linked to changes in employment law, including increases in the national minimum wage, and higher energy bills. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.
Pepper Advantage Ireland, the mortgage services provider used by a number of investment funds for loans acquired after the financial crash, has named a one-time banker with Anglo Irish Bank as its next chief executive. Niall Sorohan, who is currently chief executive of Cabot Ireland, the specialist consumer debt collection firm, will take up his new role at the start of 2025. Joe Brennan reports.
Ireland’s social contract is beginning to unravel. Currently there are more than four potential workers for every one retiree in the State. The old-age dependency ratio – the number of people aged 15-64 (potential workers) relative to the number of people aged 65 and over – was 4.3 at the end of 2022, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy in his weekly column. Of course not all people in the first category work (many are students) and not all people retire after 65 but having a multiple of workers for every one retiree is a financial necessity.
Ireland’s hospitality sector: ‘The customer feels they are not getting value for money’
Sustainability building consultancy SystemCore, cofounded three years ago by former bond trader Cathal O’Leary, plans to increase its workforce five-fold to 60 over the next two years as seeks to keep up with soaring demand for commercial building energy retrofitting projects, writes Joe Brennan. The company has so far delivered energy upgrade projects for a number of high-profile clients, including Chadwicks-owner Grafton Group and Dublin’s Herbert Park Hotel, Mater Private hospital and Alexandra College private school.
How could a seemingly small software update cause widespread global disruption that, writes technology historian Elizabeth Bruton, could take ‘some time’ to fix? Is this a rarity, or is it the “new normal” in our modern age of cloud computing? And what can we learn from older communication systems to avoid this chaos in the future?
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