Bannon will close Tuesday 23rd December 2014 and will reopen on Monday 5th January 2015
Best wishes for the festive season from all the staff at Bannon
The Quarterly report released from the Central Statistics Office today show Ireland’s quarterly international investment position (IIP) an overall stocks of foreign financial assets of €3,374.7bn – an increase of €250bn on the end-June 2014 level, while the corresponding stocks of foreign financial liabilities increased by €248.5bn to €3,551.2bn over the quarter. Irish residents had an overall net foreign liability of €177bn at end-September 2014, a decrease of €1bn on the net foreign liability level at end-June 2014
Within the commercial financial sector (i.e. MFI and OFI), IFSC enterprises accounted for a very high proportion of the sector’s overall foreign assets and liabilities. IFSC assets abroad increased by €205.4bn to €2,689.2bn at end-September 2014, or 95% of the sector’s foreign assets; IFSC liabilities at €2,725bn, an increase of €208.1bn, represented 97% of the commercial financial sector aggregate liability (and 77% of Ireland’s total foreign liabilities). IFSC enterprises showed a net liability position of €35.8bn.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Ulster Bank’s parent company, has announced this morning that Cerberus has paid €1.38bn for the Project Aran, which had an unpaid loan balance of €5.6bn and gross liabilities of €6bn. Fending off still competition from Lone Star and a consortium comprised of CarVal Investors, Goldman Sachs’ special situations fund and Apollo Global Management.
Project Aran was comprised of approximately 1,300 borrower groups, over 6,200 loans with around 5,400 properties. More than 75% by loan balance is secured by Irish assets and about 20% in Northern Ireland, with more than 90% of the loan portfolio in default.
Project Aran was upsized from an initial circa €1.7bn portfolio, back in October – View Previous Article
Dublin City Council will officially launch The North Lotts and Grand Canal Dock Planning Scheme on Wednesday 10th December at 11am at the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Offices at Custom House Quay, Dublin 1. The scheme was adopted by Dublin City Council in November 2013 and approved by An Bord Pleanala on 16th May 2014. Councillor Paddy Bourke, representing the Lord Mayor of Dublin, officially launched the scheme.
The publication marks the beginning of a new process of implementation of the Docklands Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) Scheme for the City, and a new era of investment and development in the Docklands area. The fast track planning for the Docklands (SDZ) has already seen the lodgement of its first major planning application at the Bolands Mill site with a decision due on this application in February 2015.
The Docklands SDZ is recognised as an area which is of city, region and national economic and social importance, not least due to the pro-active role the most significant land holder, NAMA, will play in its delivery.
Circa 22 Hectares are available for development in the North Lotts and Grand Canal Dock Scheme, an area roughly equivalent in scale to the entire Custom House Docks / IFSC Area. Under the scheme, the floorspace to be delivered amounts to almost 2,600 residential units and about 305,000 – 366,000 square metres of commercial floorspace. This potential would deliver an additional residential population of 5,800 and employment of 23,000 people.
This planning scheme under the Docklands SDZ seeks to meet the future needs of the City, by creating a vibrant living urban quarter and an economic cluster, capable of competing on an international level. The Docklands area has the potential to support real economic recovery and provide for a critical mass of development; to foster investment and innovation and sustain the growth of key sectors, such as financial services and the services economy.
This scheme provides a clear blueprint for new development, by requiring each major site to provide a mix of commercial and housing plus a range of services, new public spaces, parks and community and arts facilities. This mix of uses is key to the vision of the Docklands SDZ.
Dublin City Council, as the designated Development Agency for the SDZ, has already commenced work on essential elements to the success of the Scheme. A new unit of Dublin City Council is now on the ground in Docklands delivering the SDZ and working with all key stakeholders and community leaders. A community audit has commenced, in relation to a new public realm strategy for the district and for preparatory designs for key new bridges.
Irish shops are bracing themselves for their best Christmas since the nadir of the economic collapse, with a new report suggesting consumers are set to spend €4 billion between now and the new year.
The upbeat forecast is contained in Retail Ireland’s Christmas Monitor, which tracks key trends across the economy and the retail sector to give an insight into how they are likely affect the crucial Christmas trading period.
The monitor shows that €3.96 billion is likely to be spent in shops this December, up from €3.88 billion last year, with Irish households set to spend between €650 and €750 more in shops this month, than other months of the year.
The monitor, from Ibec’s retail division, shows that sales in the first nine months of this year are up 1.5% in value terms on the same period last year and it pointed to rising employment as a key driver of greater spending.
Retail Ireland’s most recent forecasts said there would be about 35,000 more people at work since last Christmas and almost 96,000 more than there were in Christmas 2012.
Disposable income has continued to climb. It increased by 3.3% in 2013 and Retail Ireland said it expected it to grow by a similar percentage this year after significant falls between 2008 and 2012.
Consumer sentiment is at its highest since 2007, with the annualised average of the ESRI/KBC consumer sentiment index 30% higher than in 2013 and 70% higher than in 2008 and 2009.
Retail Ireland said competition remained intense across the retail sector and it anticipated that prices would be kept down. At present, goods inflation is at minus 2% annually as shops battle for footfall.
Sales period
Goods prices this December are on course to be at their lowest level since December 2002, with downward pressure expected to continue into the post-Christmas sales period.
However, he warned that retailers were still paying “unsustainable high rents” and called on the Government to back Senator Feargal Quinn’s Bill on upward-only rent reviews.
View Media Article by Conor Pope
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