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Intel considers Leixlip sale and a high profile departure at Brown Thomas

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Intel is reportedly considering the sale of a stake in its Leixlip campus. Photograph: Alan Betson

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Wed May 15 2024 - 06:12

Computer chip giant Intel is reportedly mulling the sale of a large minority stake in its Leixlip plant in Co Kildare as part of the $11 billion (€10bn) refinancing the US group is currently exploring. Ciarán Hancock and Jack Power report. Any sale is not expected to lead to the building of a new Fab manufacturing facility at the Kildare site.

Shelly Corkery, the fashion buying director at Brown Thomas and Arnotts, will leave the group at the end of this week to “explore new opportunities”, staff have been told. Ciarán and Deirdre McQuillan write that the Cork woman had been with Irish retailer for 24 years.

Bank of Ireland has decided to wind down its €2 billion-plus British corporate and commercial loan book, in the latest retrenchment at its UK business. Joe Brennan reports that 40 jobs will be affected.

A contentious proposal for a development at the Glenageary roundabout has secured approval from An Bord Pleanála. However, writes Gordon Deegan, Keith Craddocks Redrock has been told it will have to pare the seven-storey, 138-apartment plan back to just five storeys and 95 apartments.

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An Post has been named the most reputable organisation in Ireland over the last 15 years, with national broadcaster RTÉ suffering the largest reputational decline over the same period, according to the long-running RepTrak study. Laura Slattery notes that the Irish League of Credit Unions tops the current years study on business reputation.

With people living longer, Martin Wolf says we need to rethink old age, as individuals and societies and not just shuffle a huge proportion of our society into unproductive and unhealthy old age. We can and must do far better, he writes in his column.

The energy regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities had some good news for another hard-pressed group – Irish homeowners – in a report that said domestic energy bills are likely to fall in the months ahead, although they are not getting back to pre-Ukraine crisis levels that prevailed in 2021. Conor Pope has the details.

Red Flag Consulting, the Dublin-headquartered communications group led by Karl Brophy and chaired by Gavin O’Reilly, has reported a near €3 million profit last year on record revenue of €12 million, figures that Mr Brophy confirmed would see it in a position to pay a seven-figure dividend to shareholders.

Another Irish man doing well is Tesco boss, Ken Murphy, who saw his remuneration more than double last year to £9.93 million (€11.5 million), according to the retailer. It means the chief executive has been paid 431 times the wage of the average Tesco worker, who earns about £23,010.

In Commercial Property, Ronald Quinlan reports that British developer Summix Capital has paid Penney’s parent, Primark, around €8 million for Independent House, the former headquarters of Independent Newspapers in Abbey Street with a view to putting a 280-bed student accommodation on the site.

And the building that housed the former Kylemore cafe on Dublin’s O’Connell Street is on the market with a guide price of €9 million and the six-storey over basement building has full planning permission for a boutique hotel

Finally, number 55 Grafton Street, which failed to sell at €2.5 million is back on the market seeking a more modest €2.15 million. Claddagh Jewellers signed a 10-year lease on the unit, close to the St Stephen’s Green end of the street guide, in July last year at a reserved rent of €150,000 annually.

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