Marathon Asset Management, a $13 billion (€11.6 billion) US hedge fund, is building a big Brexit trade, increasing its investments in property across Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, in a bet that they will be among the big beneficiaries from companies leaving London in the next few years.
These countries “have the most stable outlook and [are the] most likely to benefit from Brexit,” said Bruce Richards, co-founder and chief executive of the distressed debt and property specialist.
Hedge funds were reluctant to put on trades ahead of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership in late June given the closeness of the polls. With the volatility triggered by the vote long since vanished, hedge fund managers such as Marathon, and private equity firms such as CVC, have been been preparing for any opportunities created by the UK’s decision to leave.
Planning purchases
Marathon, which acquired a cluster of European real estate this year, including a portfolio of commercial properties in the Netherlands from Credit Suisse, is planning to buy more in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland.
It has bought significantly in Ireland in recent years, purchasing a number of retail parks, a shopping centre in Tralee, loans associated with the area around Dublin’s Heuston station as well as a number of apartment investments. It now looks set to up its spending in Ireland.
“Many bank service sector jobs will undoubtedly move to Frankfurt and Paris as EU rules will likely require bank employees to be domiciled within the EU when serving EU clients,” Mr Richards said.
Marathon believes London will remain the centre for finance in Europe but predicts that many jobs will move elsewhere.
Although UK economic data since the vote has been mixed, there are other signs that hedge fund investors still anticipate trouble for the economy. Bets among speculators on a decline in the pound touched a record last week, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since the first quarter, Marathon has acquired office buildings in Amsterdam, multifamily residences in Dublin, industrial warehouse properties or logistics centres in France and shopping centres in Germany.
Investors will be handed more up-to-date information on the UK economy this week, with a snapshot of the manufacturing sector in August and a survey of house prices for the same month both scheduled for release.
Mild recession
The UK will likely slide into a “mild” recession next year, according to Marathon, so Bank of England governor Mark Carney will probably continue on a path of easy monetary policy that the central bank began at the start of this month.
In the US, the credit cycle is unlikely to present opportunities for investors in distressed assets until 2018, according to Mr Richards.
Investors have been anticipating a rising tide of distress in credit and real estate markets. Marathon expects “anaemic growth” of 1 per cent in the coming year. “Monetary policy has reached a point of diminishing returns,” Mr Richards said, adding that “lower rates are no longer simulative but rather oppressive”.
Marathon, founded almost 20 years ago, in June sold a minority stake to Blackstone Group.
In 2011, Mr Richards said Europe presented “the mother lode of distressed opportunities” as the continent grappled with its sovereign debt crisis and growth sputtered. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016)

US hedge fund Marathon targets Irish property


EU countries with most stable outlook likely to benefit most from Brexit, says fund


X
By using this website, you consent to our use of cookies. For more information on cookies see our Cookie Policy


It’s one of the most documented findings in finance: the majority of equity funds underperform stock markets. However, defenders of active management say the statistics are distorted by closet index funds containing so many positions as to make their performance almost indistinguishable from benchmark indices. Can investors therefore earn outsized profits by avoiding the closet indexers and embracing concentrated, high-conviction funds?
Neither passive nor genuinely active investors have a good word to say about closet index funds. Such funds are all too common, for two main reasons. Firstly, fund managers run the risk of being fired or losing investors if they suffer short-term underperformance; buying hundreds of stocks means outperformance becomes almost impossible, but it also ensures their performance will not deviate too much relative to their benchmark, thereby minimising career risk.
Secondly, managers want to bag the extra fee that comes with increased assets under management, but it’s difficult to manage large sums of money if your investment universe is limited to 30 or so stocks. Accordingly, managers are naturally incentivised to over-diversify and own more stocks; diversification becomes diworsification.
That’s bad news for investors hoping to outperform markets. According to a study conducted by money manager and author Robert Hagstrom, a randomly generated portfolio of 15 stocks has a 27 per cent chance of outperforming indices, but the odds of outperformance decline to just 2 per cent for portfolios consisting of 250 stocks.
What if managers took a more concentrated approach? Few if any investors can have in-depth knowledge of 200 or 300 stocks, but what if they had only to pick a few stocks – say their best ideas? One 2010 study, ‘Best Ideas’, found returns generated by managers’ “high-conviction investments” – for example, their top-five stocks – comfortably outperformed the market and their other holdings. Investors, the authors concluded, “would benefit if managers held more concentrated portfolios”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Similar conclusions are reached by the authors of ‘Diversification versus Concentration . . . and the Winner is?’, a 2012 paper that examined 4,700 US equity funds over the 1999-2009 period; the more concentrated the portfolio, the better the performance.
Active share
One way of avoiding closet index funds is to buy funds with a high active share, a concept popularised by Yale researchers Martijn Cremers and Antti Petajisto.
Active share refers to the percentage of a fund’s portfolio that differs from its benchmark. A fund with a score of 0 is identical to its benchmark index, whereas a score of 100 means it holds none of the stocks in the index. A 2009 Cremers and Petajisto paper that examined the 1980-2003 period found US funds with the highest active share “significantly outperform their benchmarks, both before and after expenses”.
A follow-up Petajisto paper in 2013 that analysed the 1990-2009 period found the average actively managed fund underperformed, with one exception – the most active stock pickers, who beat indices by 1.26 per cent per year after fees and by 2.61 per cent annually before fees, indicating a “nontrivial amount of skill”.
Other studies have replicated these findings regarding the value of active share. One recent study found significantly better performance from emerging market funds with a high active share over the 2009-14 period. Similarly, recent research by Premier Multi-Asset Funds’ manager Simon Evans-Cook has found UK funds with the highest active share have easily outperformed the FTSE All-Share index over one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods.
Sceptical
Many researchers are sceptical, however. A recent study of the Norwegian equity market found “no correlation between the active share and performance, persistence, nor skill”. Japanese firm Nomura’s analysis of the US market found that closet trackers actually outperformed concentrated stock pickers in eight of the 11 years from 2004 to 2014. Active share “may have been useful before 2004 but not since then”, cautioned Nomura.
Similarly, Morningstar researcher Russ Kinnel noted last month that funds with high active share have underperformed those with low active share over the 2011-15 period. Low fees are a better guide to fund performance, said Kinnel; 64 per cent of the cheapest funds outperformed, he said, compared to just 29 per cent of the funds with the highest active share.
Advocates of passive investing are also sceptical. A Vanguard report found high-conviction funds were associated with higher costs but not better performance. An S&P Dow Jones Indices report, meanwhile, cautions portfolio volatility “will almost certainly increase” if an active manager reduces his holdings from 100 to 20 or so stocks. The S&P report also suggests portfolio concentration makes management skill “harder to detect, and less likely to matter”; a few losing bets can make a skilled manager look bad just as a few lucky punts will make bad managers look good, resulting in investors’ decisions being “informed by luck rather than skill”.
The most trenchant criticism, however, comes from researchers allied to hedge fund AQR Capital Management. Their paper, ‘Deactivating Active Share’, says Cremers’ and Petajisto’s findings have “attracted considerable attention in the investment community”, with more active managers opting to “tout their active share”. However, AQR researchers argue that while the highest active share funds have outperformed in recent decades, this is because such funds were largely invested in small- and mid-cap companies; this, rather than active share, explains the results.
Patience
Cremers and Petajisto, who have vociferously rejected the AQR thesis, argue that critics are missing the point. Active share is “not a measure of skill”, Cremers said at a Morningstar conference earlier this year. “You do not need skill to have high active share, you just need to buy a bunch of different stocks”.
ADVERTISEMENT
On its own, a fund’s active share tells you little, he admits. The key is to examine a fund’s active share and its average holding period. Cremers’ latest paper, ‘Patient Capital Outperformance: The Investment Skill of High Active Share Managers Who Trade Infrequently’, finds that managers that trade frequently “systematically underperform”, even if they are funds with a high active share. However, funds characterised both by high active share and patience (defined as holding positions for at least two years) have significantly outperformed over the last 26 years, by over 2 percentage points per year.
Useful
Overall, the concept of active share appears useful on a number of levels. Calls for funds to reveal their active share have grown louder in recent years and that is a good thing – low active share scores expose closet index funds that are taking their investors for a ride. Additionally, if a fund’s active share declines rapidly, it may suggest that asset bloat – a rush of money into a fund after a period of outperformance – is driving a change in strategy.
Nevertheless, it’s clear investors would be naive to dive headlong into a fund purely on the basis of it boasting a high active share or a low number of stock holdings. Deviating from an index is risky. Investors frequently make the mistake of thinking a portfolio consisting of 10 or 20 stocks has a 50:50 chance of outperforming, but the aforementioned Robert Hagstrom statistics show a randomly-generated 15-stock portfolio has only a 27 per cent chance of beating the market.
That’s because most stocks actually underperform the market, with a small handful of so-called super-stocks historically accounting for the bulk of market returns. Doubtless, those odds will plummet further if a fund manager relies on a dumb strategy – managers that frequently trade expensive growth stocks will underperform, whether or not their fund boasts a high active share.
In that sense, active share is, as Prof Cremers puts it, “a very basic tool” in a large toolbox. If combined with other tools, however, the measure would appear to be a relevant one for investors seeking market-beating returns. Cremers’ research indicates the best managers outperform by focusing on stocks often shunned by others: specifically, picking safe, value and high-quality stocks “and then sticking with those over relatively long periods until their apparent undervaluation has been reversed”.
In that sense, high active share doesn’t mean a manager will outperform; it is, however, a necessary condition for outperformance.

Should active funds embrace high-conviction investing?


Research suggests investors can profit by buying funds that go against the grain


First-time buyers are expected to get a filip this October, with plans afoot for a new incentive-type scheme which should help them get a first step on the property ladder.
The so-called “Help to Buy” scheme for first time-buyers (FTBs) will be outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on budget day, and should offer some form of monetary incentive for beleaguered homebuyers stymied by restrictive mortgage lending rules and exorbitant rents.
The Help to Buy initiative is part of the Government’s overall housing strategy, which aims to increase the number of homes built a year to 25,000 by 2021, as well as providing 47,000 social housing units in the same period.
Previous efforts to incentivise first-time buyers through Dirt-free savings have failed to take off, so will the Government strike the right note with its new plan?
All will be revealed when Budget 2017 is announced, but here are some preliminary pointers:
1) It will be revealed on budget day: Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has indicated that the new scheme will be revealed on budget day, October 11th, 2016.
2) It could be worth up to €10,000 a couple: In its manifesto, Fianna Fáil previously proposed a type of special saving incentive account (SSIA) scheme, which would see the Government give people €50 for every €200 they saved towards a mortgage deposit. The incentive would be capped at €5,000 for a single buyer and €10,000 for couples. However, while the Government’s scheme is thought to be of a similar order, it is understood to work around a tax rebate scheme. This means that rather than incentivise people to save for a deposit for a property, the Government will give you money back once you purchase, something akin to the home renovation incentive scheme, which gives you 13.5 per cent VAT refund on new kitchens/extensions etc. The new scheme could, however, be a combination of the two. The UK’s Help to Buy scheme, for example, gives those saving for a home a 25 per cent reward on savings of up to £3,000, so a maximum reward of £750. However, while the scheme was originally understood to be introduced to help those saving for a deposit, it now appears that the reward can only be used once the property is purchased.
ADVERTISEMENT
3) It will be backdated to July 19th. Announcing the scheme on July 19th, Mr Coveney said that any incentive will be backdated to this date, which should reassure FTBs who are hoping to buy before the budget. However, it is not yet clear what this date actually means – ie, does it apply to property buyers who go sale agreed after this date? Or does it apply to mortgage drawdowns? This could potentially exclude FTBs who bought a property in June, and drew it down in August.
4) The scheme may be limited to particular homes: Conal Mac Coille, economist with Davy Stockbrokers, notes that the scheme may be limited to homes under a certain value and/or new build properties only. Given that the scheme is to be introduced to “incentivise the construction of more starter homes”, the latter could make sense, while a cap on values is pretty much a certainty. As Mr Coveney said when launching his housing plan in July, “We’re not in the business of supporting the purchase of mansions.”
5) It could push up house prices: If, as is expected, the rebate is as much as €10,000 for a couple, when this is set against an average mortgage loan of €197,000 for the second quarter of this year the rebate “could push up house prices significantly”, Mr Mac Coille says. The aforementioned Help to Buy scheme in the UK, for example, is said to have added an average £8,250 to the cost of a home.
6) It’s for first-time buyers only: Under Revenue rules, a FTB is someone who has never – either jointly or individually – purchased or built their own house in Ireland or abroad; intends to live in the property; and won’t earn rent on the property apart from letting a room under the rent-a-room scheme. If the Government applies this understanding of a FTB to its new scheme, it means that if your partner previously purchased a property and you now hope to buy one together, you won’t be entitled to avail of the scheme. Moreover, if you’re a returning emigrant and previously purchased a property abroad, you won’t be considered as a FTB either.
7) It’s part of a review of mortgage-lending limits: The Department of Finance is working on the scheme in conjunction with the Central Bank, as part of its review of its mortgage lending limits. Whether or not this means changes to the mortgage lending review remains to be seen, however.
8) Mortgage insurance may be part of the scheme: In its housing plan “Rebuilding Ireland”, the Government noted that the goal of Help to Buy is to provide “affordable mortgage finance or mortgage insurance” for FTBs. Mortgage insurance is a way of allowing homeowners borrow more than the 80 per cent or so of purchase price allowed under the Central Bank’s new rules, as some of the mortgage risk is transferred from lenders to insurers. However last year a senior economist with the Central Bank expressed concern about the potential cost of mortgage insurance, warning that it could “act counter” to the regulator’s lending rules.

What we know about the new first-time buyers package


‘Help-to-Buy’ scheme will likely exclude returning emigrants who bought property abroad


An escalating battle between Apple and Spotify is leaving some musicians caught in the crossfire.
Spotify has been retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music by making their songs harder to find, according to people familiar with the strategy. Artists who have given Apple exclusive access to new music have been told they won’t be able to get their tracks on featured playlists once the songs become available on Spotify,said the people, who declined to be identified discussing the steps.Those artists have also found their songs buried in the search rankings of Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service, the people said.
Spotify said it doesn’t alter search rankings.
Spotify has been using such practices for about a year, one of the people said, though others said the efforts have escalated over the past few months. Artists who have given exclusives to Tidal, the streaming service run by Jay Z, have also been retaliated against, the person said, declining to identify specific musicians.
Biggest challenger
Apple’s music service has emerged as the largest challenger to Spotify over the past year, signing up more than 15 million subscribers since its debut last June, the company said two months ago. Exclusive deals for new music from artists such as Drake, Chance the Rapper and Frank Ocean are central to Apple’s strategy.
Spotify has more than 30 million subscribers globally.Apple Music also has ways to promote artists, such as highlighting their songs in its Top Tracks section, giving it ways to play favorites with musicians.
The dustup over exclusives comes at a critical time for Spotify, which is in the midst of renegotiating licensing contracts with the world’s biggest record labels. The company is aiming to hold an initial public offering by the end of next year, but needs more favorable long-term agreements with the labels to attract a higher valuation from investors, according to a person familiar with the plans. The company isn’t profitable despite generating more than $2 billion in revenue, in part because it has to give 55 per cent of the money to labels and an additional cut to publishers.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s not clear whether major artists like Drake and Ocean have been affected by Spotify’s measures, and their representatives didn’t respond to questions. In any case, artists of their stature need less help from Spotify to draw attention to their music, emerging acts rely on the service to find new listeners.
The company has threatened to use its retaliatory practices on lesser-known artists who introduce music on a Beats One show hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, an architect of Apple’s radio service, the people said.One representative of a singer-songwriter said the client canceled plans to debut a song on Lowe’s show because of concern that the artist would lose promotion from Spotify. The agent asked not to be identified, and that the artist not be named, to avoid damaging relationships with the music-streaming companies.
Lowe, a former BBC radio host, has introduced new tracks from his first day on the air with Beats One, and his show has become an important platform to debut songs worldwide.
Ratcheting up
Apple and Spotify have been feuding since before Apple Music’s debut, and competition between the two ratcheted up again in the last several weeks after Apple proposed changing songwriting royalties in a way that would increase costs for competitors like Spotify by putting its music in a different category that requires a higher rate.
Spotify has also accused Apple of blocking a new version of its iPhone app, the latest volley in an ongoing dispute over Apple’s cut of sales from its app store. Apple denied blocking Spotify’s app, saying its rival hadn’t met its terms of service.
Led by former record executive Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music has kept its strategy flexible to appeal to what an artist wants. In the case of Frank Ocean and Drake, the company paid for exclusives. With Adele and Beyonce, it agreed to keep the music off its streaming service and initially only make it available for a paid download. The company also has been appealing to artists and industry executives by limiting its streaming service to paying subscribers and not having a free advertising-supported version like Spotify.
Spotify has decried exclusive deals as harmful to musicians, fans and the growing business of music streaming. However, it has sought to make exclusive deals with some artists, such as rock band the 1975, but refused to limit the release to the company’s paid service only, as labels and musicians have sought, two of the people said.
Spotify has said a robust free service is needed to attract new users who can eventually become subscribers.
Record labels are still pushing Spotify to let artists release music for paying subscribers only, and have yet to sign new long-term deals with the service as a result.Yet Apple’s ability to attract those big exclusives may also be in jeopardy. In an internal memo this week, Lucian Grainge, chief executive officer of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, directed the heads of his company’s labels to stop giving any music services long-term exclusives, according to two people familiar with the matter. Universal has sold Apple many of its biggest exclusives, including Drake.
Bloomberg

Spotify is burying musicians for their Apple deals


Music streaming site said to be retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music


Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.
At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.
We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland. The vast majority are still in Cork — including some of the very first employees — now performing a wide variety of functions as part of Apple’s global footprint. Countless multinational companies followed Apple by investing in Cork, and today the local economy is stronger than ever.
The success which has propelled Apple’s growth in Cork comes from innovative products that delight our customers. It has helped create and sustain more than 1.5 million jobs across Europe — jobs at Apple, jobs for hundreds of thousands of creative app developers who thrive on the App Store, and jobs with manufacturers and other suppliers. Countless small and medium-size companies depend on Apple, and we are proud to support them.
As responsible corporate citizens, we are also proud of our contributions to local economies across Europe, and to communities everywhere. As our business has grown over the years, we have become the largest taxpayer in Ireland, the largest taxpayer in the United States, and the largest taxpayer in the world.
The Apple tax ruling The EC issued a ruling on August 30th in relation to the tax arrangements of Apple in Ireland, where it has its European HQ. The EC said Apple had been granted selective treatment by Ireland through two tax rulings in 1991 and 2007. The EC has ordered Ireland to recover up to €13 billion from the tech giant. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan indicated Ireland would appeal the decision "to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation”. Q&A: Cliff Taylor answers the key questions I found this helpful Yes No
Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe. The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.
At its root, the Commission’s case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes. It is about which government collects the money.
Taxes for multinational companies are complex, yet a fundamental principle is recognized around the world: A company’s profits should be taxed in the country where the value is created. Apple, Ireland and the United States all agree on this principle.
In Apple’s case, nearly all of our research and development takes place in California, so the vast majority of our profits are taxed in the United States. European companies doing business in the U.S. are taxed according to the same principle. But the Commission is now calling to retroactively change those rules.
Beyond the obvious targeting of Apple, the most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe. Using the Commission’s theory, every company in Ireland and across Europe is suddenly at risk of being subjected to taxes under laws that never existed.
Apple has long supported international tax reform with the objectives of simplicity and clarity. We believe these changes should come about through the proper legislative process, in which proposals are discussed among the leaders and citizens of the affected countries. And as with any new laws, they should be applied going forward — not retroactively.
We are committed to Ireland and we plan to continue investing there, growing and serving our customers with the same level of passion and commitment. We firmly believe that the facts and the established legal principles upon which the EU was founded will ultimately prevail.
Tim Cook

Tim Cook reacts: ‘We are committed to Ireland’


Below is an open letter posted by Apple CEO Tim Cook on the tech giant's website


High Court proceedings brought by TV doctor Dr Nina Byrnes against businessman Derek Richardson over a medical surgery she has been operating at a South Dublin shopping centre have been resolved.
While Dr Byrnes, who has presented the TV shows Health of the Nation for RTÉ and Doctor in the House for TV3, has brought her action against Mr Richard to an end her claim against other parties arising out the dispute over the surgery remains in being.
The case commenced earlier this month when Dr Byrnes secured a temporary High Court injunction restoring her to possession of the GP surgery, trading under the name Generation Health on the first floor of Glenageary Shopping Centre, Glenageary Road Upper, Co Dublin.
Evicted
She claimed she was evicted from the surgery by the landlords and owners of the property from where she has operated the surgery since June of last year. Her proceedings were against Pearl Health Ltd, its director David Johnson of Killiney Hill Upper, Killiney, Co Dublin, and the alleged owner of the building, Mr Richardson, who is the owner of English Rugby team Wasps.
The matter returned before Mr Justice Tony O’Connor at the High Court on Monday. Following talks between lawyers the court heard Dr Byrnes’s entire proceedings against Mr Richardson could be struck out and the injunction against him could be discharged.
The businessman’s lawyers said the dispute was between Dr Byrnes and Pearl Health and not Mr Richardson. Mr Richardson had described the injunction against him as being “oppressive and vexatious”. The court also heard the injunction against Mr Johnson and Pearl Health and Dr Byrnes could be struck out on terms. However her claim against Pearl and Mr Johnson is to proceed.
Her barrister, Luan Ó Braonain SC, said it had been agreed that the parties would take steps to expedite the full hearing of the dispute before the High Court. No details of the terms or any arrangements agreed between the parties were given in open court. The injunction restrained the defendants from interfering with Dr Byrnes’s operation of the surgery and the employees working at the the medical practice.
ADVERTISEMENT
The defendants were also ordered to surrender vacant possession of the property to her and were prohibited from trespassing on the property. The injunction also restrained the defendants from accessing interfering or removing patients’ records held at the GP clinic.
Clinic
In a sworn statement Dr Byrnes said that in 2015 she established a new GP clinic at Glenageary Shopping Centre. She did so after Pearl Health Ltd said its plan was to bring together dentists, physiotherapists and other related professionals at the shopping centre to create a medical centre.
She said it was agreed she would lease the property and would have exclusive rights to provide GP services under the “Generation Health” brand. She claimed in recent months there were incidents that amounted to an unlawful interference with her business.
Legal correspondence between the parties followed. Dr Byrnes said she was informed her agreement with the defendants had been terminated.
When she arrived for work on Friday, August 12th last, there was an attempt to lock her out of the premises. She claimed the actions of the respondents will cause irreparable damage to her medical and business reputations, as well as her standing in the community.

High Court proceedings against businessman Derek Richardson dropped


Dr Nina Byrnes to continue action against Pearl Health and director David Johnson


Recent figures show revenue from the lotto’s new online channel grew by a modest 4 per cent last year.
Not particularly great when you consider sales in scratch cards, a relative dinosaur of the trade, rose by 4.5 per cent.
And not when the newly privatised franchise spent heavily on a marketing campaign, involving a sequence of expensive TV adverts featuring a guru high up in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks comically failing to predict the next day’s lotto numbers.
The figures show the online channel only accounted for a meagre €23 million or 3.4 per cent of overall revenue, which is only marginally higher than before the channel was opened up as part of the privatisation process.
The franchise was sold in 2014 for €405 million to Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) principally on the untapped potential of online.
Under the old system, operated by An Post, online registration process was cumbersome and the operator was forbidden from marketing the online channel.
The Government did away with these restrictions in parallel with the privatisation process.
However, PLI’s Canada paymasters Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan won’t exactly be popping champagne corks on foot of these numbers.
PLI’s sister group, Camelot, which operates the lotto franchise in the United Kingdom, had a similar growth for online but their online offering accounts for nearly a fifth of overall revenue.
The operator will, of course, point to the growth in interactive players, which rose by 61 per cent to over 225,000 in 2015 but hoped for revenue windfall from online hasn’t materialised just yet.
Total Irish sales across all platforms last year was €670.4 million, representing a drop of 2.5 per cent on the €687.6 million in revenues throughout 2014.
This suggests the lottery is not benefitting from the pick-up in consumer spending and remains mired in recessionary metrics.
ADVERTISEMENT
Has the new minimum ticket price of €4, albeit for a two-line play, been a factor?
Either way, PLI will have to halt this spiral if it is to justify the €405 million shelled out for the licence.

Revenue from Lotto’s online channel climbs mere 4%


Modest increase will come as disappointment given expensive marketing campaign


UK job seekers are starting to see the impact of Brexit, with salaries under pressure and companies advertising more contract positions as they resist committing to permanent hiring.
The average advertised salary was £32,688 in July, down 2.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to an index by job search engine Adzuna published Tuesday. When inflation is taken into account, real earnings have fallen 3 per cent, it said.While the Bank of England expects continued wage growth, the weaker pound may push up inflation, eating into real incomes.
Adzuna said Brexit has played a role in the “widespread stagnation” in salaries, as industries such as finance with higher-paid workers delay hiring and “wait for political and economic decisions to become clearer.”The labor market remained relatively stable in the run-up before the European Union referendum, though there were some signs of weakness at the end of the second quarter. Companies added 172,000 jobs in the three months and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9 per cent.
“The resilience of the jobs market can’t be forgotten,” said Doug Monro,co-founder of Adzuna. “The unemployment rate has fallen to levels not seen since 2005 and this is hugely encouraging.”The report showed the number of advertised positions rose 2.4 per cent in July from a year earlier, though part time vacancies dropped 58 per cent.
Bloomberg

UK salaries weaken in aftermath of Brexit vote


Companies advertise more contract positions as they resist committing to permanent hiring


The European Commission faces one big job as it presents its ruling on Apple. Can it defend the formula it has presented for calculating what Apple owes?
The commission has accused the Irish Revenue Commissioners of having no proper technical basis for tax rulings made in relation to Apple in 1991 and 2007. In fact, its preliminary findings were that a kind of reverse engineering went on, under which both sides worked out how much tax Apple would pay, and a way was then found to achieve this.
But has the commission itself managed to come up with a defendable basis for what the bill should have been? The Government here will claim, with some force, that it has not and that its action in trying to do so is unprecedented and has no sound legal basis.
As the commission’s own deliberations have dragged on and on, and huge pressure from the United States has already been applied, it remains to be seen whether the competition directorate has come up with a clear formula which has a legal basis that will stand up in the European Court of Justice, which is where this is all going to end up.
It will face intense pressure in the days ahead of explaining the basis for its decision, with tax and legal experts immediately searching for holes. It remains to be seen just how robust the conclusions prove.
That is not to say that Ireland does not have a case to answer in the way Apple has been treated. Ministers and officials have tended to dismiss the investigation out of hand, rather than engaging in the detail of what actually happened. A key part of their response will be that the many of the key tax reliefs used by Apple and other US multinationals have now been closed off.
ADVERTISEMENT
Really what is going on here is a fight for tax dollars. The US wants more tax from its companies, and other European countries will argue that some of the tax which Ireland will be asked to collect actually should be going to them.
Apple, meanwhile, will say that it has applied the letter of the law. It is a mess, and how on earth the European courts will deal with it is anyone’s guess.

Cantillon: Commission faces intense pressure on Apple ruling


Can it defend formula it has presented for calculating what US tech giant owes?


QRE is guiding €2.75 million for a mixed-use investment with vacant possession in a top Dublin 2 location.
The residential and office building, which requires refurbishment and is being sold on the instructions of receiver Duff and Phelps, is located at 22-22A Earlsfort Terrace.
This “Belgravia-style” property is four-storey over basement, extends to 800sq m ( 8,611sq ft) and has period features and fireplaces throughout. It is set out as five large apartments (three three-beds and two one-beds) together with four high-quality office suites.
The location, at the junction of Earlsfort terrace and Adelaide Road, is one of the most sought-after commercial and residential locations in the city centre. Nearby landmarks include the National Concert Hall, Iveagh Gardens, St Stephen’s Green and Fitzwilliam Square.
Zoned Z8 under the Dublin City Development Plan 2011-2017, the agent suggests the building offers the purchaser an opportunity for full conversion to residential apartments (subject to the necessary planning permissions).

Mixed-use investment in top Dublin 2 location for €2.75m


Residential and office building on Earlsfort Terrace could be converted to apartments


August tends to be a quiet month for markets and things are especially sleepy at the moment.
The S&P 500 hasn’t moved up or down by 1 per cent on a single day since early July; there have been only a handful of days on which the index moved by 0.5 per cent or more. Average daily changes over the last six weeks have been the lowest since 1995.
Trading volumes have plummeted by 30 per cent since January, according to Credit Suisse, compared to a typical January-August drop of 8 per cent. Volatility in emerging markets, too, has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year.
Fear has vanished. The Vix, the so-called fear index that measures the cost of buying insurance against market declines, recently hit its lowest level in two years. Although insurance appears dirt cheap, many expect it to get cheaper – hedge funds’ net short in Vix futures is near record levels,
This is a “red flag”, cautions Merrill Lynch; selling volatility to enhance yield “is now at an extreme level”. In itself, a low Vix doesn’t indicate complacency, and low volatility can persist for years. However, market speculators appear vulnerable to any spike in volatility; traders betting on a lower Vix will be hoping the current sleepy spell doesn’t end any time soon.
Short squeeze drives sterling bounce
Sterling enjoyed a decent bounce last week, following better-than-expected economic data, but it’s far too early to say whether the pound has bottomed.
The recent rebound appears more of a technical rebound than one solely driven by fundamentals. Since sinking to a three-decade low against the dollar two months ago, sterling has remained within a $1.28-$1.34 trading range. The recent rebound coincided with the pound falling to the bottom of that range. More crucially, short bets against sterling had climbed for seven straight weeks; by mid-August, net short positions had hit record highs and were more than three standard deviations above their historical average.
ADVERTISEMENT
No asset rises or falls in a straight line; lopsided market positioning meant conditions were ripe for a short squeeze. However, many sellers may reinitiate short bets if sterling rises to the higher end of that aforementioned trading range, especially as the economic impact of Brexit will not become clear for some time. A technical bounce should not be mistaken for a long-term bottom.
Don’t fear low trading volumes
Trading volumes have been extremely low over the last month. Indeed, while volumes soared during the January-February selloff, the subsequent six-month rally has been a low-volume affair, troubling commentators who associate low volumes with low conviction.
However, there is no substance to the oft-repeated notion that volume should confirm price, judging by Bespoke Investment Group research. Since the bull market began in March 2009, the S&P 500 has gained an incredible 826 per cent on days registering below-average trading volumes. In contrast, stocks have fallen by 65 per cent on days recording above-average trading volumes.
In other words, a strategy based on the “low volume bad, high volume good” theory has been a fast way to the poorhouse over the last seven years.
Frustrated investors pulling money from hedge funds
Investors may be losing patience with hedge funds, which last month suffered net outflows of $25.2 billion (€22.5bn) – the biggest monthly redemption since February 2009, according to eVestment.
With similar outflows reported in June, hedge funds appear set to suffer net annual outflows for only the third time in history, and the first since 2009.
It’s surprising it has taken so long. A US 60:40 equity:bond portfolio would have beaten the average hedge fund every year over the last decade. In the UK, too, a 60:40 portfolio would have returned three times as much money as the average hedge fund over the last five years, according to SCM Direct, despite hedge funds’ charging 36 times the fees.
It remains to be seen if 2016 will represent a mere blip for hedge funds or “the first innings of a washout”, as hedge fund manager Dan Loeb warned last April. The latter would be preferable – continuing to pay big fees for lousy returns truly defies reason.
Overconfident CEOs good for stock prices
Overconfidence in chief executives is not always a bad thing, according to a new study (see http://goo.gl/Jw54G9).
. One common way of identifying overconfident chief executives, the researchers noted, is to focus on executives holding deep in-the-money vested stock options (by not selling, they are indicating they expect their company share price will keep rising).
Such CEOs are more likely to provide voluntary earnings guidance, announce stock repurchases and use mark-to-market accounting practices, the researchers found. Increasing information dissemination about the company helps “level the playing field between informed and uninformed investors”, increasing market efficiency and preventing the likelihood of shares becoming undervalued.

Stocktake: Sleepy markets vulnerable to volatility spike


Overconfidence in CEOs not always bad and it’s too early to know if pound has bottomed


German unemployment continued its decline in August, signaling that consumption driven by a strong labour market may cushion the blow to Europe’s largest economy from Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
The number of people out of work fell by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 2.675 million, data from the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg showed on Wednesday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast a drop of 4,000.
The jobless rate remained at a record low of 6.1 per cent.The sign of job-market resilience comes after German business sentiment unexpectedly declined the most in more than four years and company executives raised concern that political uncertainty related to Brexit threatened to damp output.
Policy makers have expressed confidence that the economic recovery will continue, bolstered by private spending, a pickup in investment and solid export growth.”The labour market continued to develop favorably overall,” Frank-Juergen Weise, president of Germany’s labor agency, said in a statement.
“The demand for workers, measured by employment and reported openings, continues to be strong.”The number of people out of work fell by 1,000 in western Germany and decreased by 6,000 in the eastern part of the country, the labor agency said.
Unemployment is likely to climb in the coming months as hundreds of thousands of job seekers, who arrived as migrants last year, prepare to enter the labor market.

German jobless rate continues to decline despite Brexit


Unemployment remained at record low of 6.1 per cent in Europe’s powerhouse economy


Take-up of space in the Dublin office market for the first half of this year came in at around 100,000sq m – similar to the same period in 2015 – underlining strong levels of occupier demand.
This is according to the latest review from agent HWBC which notes that “real levels of activity on the ground” are not reflected in the take-up figures as over 80,000sq m of space is reserved or at various stages of pre-contract due diligence. As a result HWBC is predicting that full-year take-up for this year will be around 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m.
It says there is 292,000sq m of available office space in the city which gives a vacancy rate of 8 per cent. New completions in 2016 will come in at just 8,100sq m, while 330,000sq m of new office space is currently under construction in the central business district.
HWBC says it is “too early to gauge the effect of Brexit on the Dublin office market” but suggests it is reasonable to assume that Dublin could be one of the few beneficiaries of the vote with potential increased FDI from the UK, Europe and the US.
Implications
“There is no real evidence yet of increased inquiries from the UK,” says HWBC’s Paul Scannell , “but we expect this to become more pronounced by year-end, with interest particularly from the financial and professional sectors.
“Any increased interest from companies relocating to Dublin is likely to play out over the next two years as more clarity emerges on the real implications for British business of leaving the EU.
“We expect a number of large multinationals to run the rule over Dublin and other competing markets, such as Paris and Frankfurt, over the next 12 months, so they are ready to press the buttons on a move if required. Some of the larger occupiers may even consider securing options on space under construction to ensure they can secure the required space in the preferred location.”
ADVERTISEMENT
HWBC says the lack of central business district space is still putting upward pressure on prime rents which are now at €620 per square metre. Some smaller lettings are being agreed at €645 per square metre, it says, and this rental level will become “established for prime space by the end of the year”.
Larger occupiers seeking new central business district space are now required to commit for a minimum of 15 years term certain as developers take advantage of market conditions and lack of supply. Tenant incentives, like rent-free periods, are also under pressure and are typically at three months for each five-year term. “But larger tenants can still agree attractive packages particularly for early pre-lets,” says Mr Scannell.
Suburbs
As pressure for central business district space intensifies, HWBC notes that activity in the suburbs is “strong” with take-up in Dublin 18 accounting for 11 per cent of the total so far this year.
Sandyford, Central Park and South County Business Park are the most popular locations, with Ardagh choosing Pelham House in the latter location for its new headquarters.
Further out Cherrywood is seeing renewed occupier interest given its competitive rents and access to the Luas, M50 and N11.
Mr Scannell says there are no signs of the market being oversupplied even with 330,000sq m under construction for completion over the next two years and over a third of this space already pre-committed.
“With 300,000sq m plus of identified market demand, we don’t expect supply and demand levels to reach equilibrium until at least the end of 2018.”

Review shows strong demand for office space in Dublin


Full-year take-up for office space this year predicted to be 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m


Irish wholesale gas prices have fallen 35 per cent since this time last year, according to the latest energy market report from Vayu Energy.
Vayu, which supplies gas to 20 per cent of Ireland’s industrial and commercial market, said the drop in prices was due strong supplies, decreased demand and falling oil prices.
The company, which is backed by mining giant Glencore, also highlighted that gas prices were down 10 per cent on a monthly basis as August is traditionally a period of low demand.
Sterling performing poorly
“Abundant supply continues to be the main driver of gas prices for delivery next month, and there may be a further downside to winter prices as sterling continues to perform poorly against the euro, which is good news for euro-backed traders,” Vayu senior energy analyst Gillian Lawler said.
“Updated storage figures show European stocks are extremely healthy,” she said, pointing to a recent update from Centrica, which houses 70 per cent of the UK’s storage capacity.
However, she noted liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries have been disappointing as producers have engaged in competitive tactics to bolster global prices.
Cargos have been diverted from Europe to keep prices elevated to avoid the LNG market crashing altogether, Ms Lawler said.
Qatar has been sending cargos below market value to Japan and India, and the US is sending cargos to non-European markets.
It looks like 16 per cent of global LNG production will have come to Europe by the end of 2016, below some forecasts, she added.
Wind energy
Vayu’s report also highlighted that wind energy accounted for 24 per cent of electricity generation in August.
Wind generation reached a peak of 2,313 megawatts on August 3rd, meaning it had the potential to meet more than 52 per cent of total electricity demand on the island of Ireland at that time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some 18,917 gigawatts of wind energy have been generated since the start of the year, representing 21 per cent of total electricity demand on the island of Ireland during this period.
Ireland’s 2020 renewable energy targets commit the State to sourcing 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind.

Irish wholesale gas prices down 35% year on year


Vayu report shows 24 per cent of electricity demand supplied through wind in August


The outcome of Britain’s referendum on EU membership caught most Irish businesses by surprise, according to a new survey.
InterTradeIreland’s latest business monitor indicates that 97 per cent of firms, and 92 per cent of export firms, had no plans to deal with Brexit and the ensuing volatility.
The post-referendum uncertainty is further reflected by the relatively high number of businesses, approximately one in five, now reporting plans to decrease investment.
InterTradeIreland’s survey also indicated more than a quarter of Irish businesses (27 per cent) are concerned about exchange rates, an increase of 14 per cent on the first quarter, with sterling 10 per cent down against the euro since the poll.
“It is evident in the responses to our latest business monitor that the outcome of the EU referendum has caught many businesses on the hop and introduced a large degree of uncertainty into the marketplace,” Aidan Gough, policy director at InterTradeIreland, said.
“Clearly businesses will need support to manage the ramifications of Brexit, particularly in the provision of timely and relevant information to assist them to adjust to any new trading relationships that emerge from Brexit negotiations.”
“In the short term, whilst companies will still trade under the same rules and regulations, we would encourage them to hedge any exposure their business may have to volatile movements in the sterling-euro exchange rate,” he said.
InterTradeIreland’s survey also picked up a variation between companies in the Republic and their Northern Ireland counterparts in terms of the perceived Brexit impact on cross-Border trade.
While almost three in five of businesses in the Republic (57 per cent) felt that cross-Border sales would decrease, only one in four Northern Irish firms felt they would be negatively impacted (25 per cent).
Variations
There were also variations across sectors. The hospitality industry is expecting a sharp decline in cross-Border sales with four out of five (84 per cent) companies expecting a downturn.
ADVERTISEMENT
In comparison, about half of those in the manufacturing (49 per cent), construction (52 per cent) and servicing sectors (52 per cent) foresee a sharp decline in their cross-Border business.
Of those questioned, retailers are the most positive, with 15 per cent anticipating an impact, which the survey suggests this may be due to exchange rate volatility.
“In terms of wider business performance, the picture remains generally positive. In quarter two, 93 per cent of businesses in Ireland report that they were stable or growing,” Mr Gough said.
“We may see uncertainty continuing in forthcoming quarters while companies adjust to the changing realities,” he added.

Most Irish firms unprepared for Brexit, survey finds


Research finds post-referendum uncertainty prompts many business to halt investment


Life and pensions administrator Se2 said on Tuesday it would double the workforce at its Waterford operations to 135 employees over the next three to four years. The US company has an existing full-time team of 70, and hopes to fill out its 135-seat office over the coming years.
It opened its new Waterford offices onTuesday in what is an “important milestone” for the company, said chief executive Gautam Thakkar.
“ This is a sign of our continued commitment to the region, which is an important hub for our global service delivery model, and we are excited about this investment in our business.”
Se2 supports more than 1,000 life and annuity products for more than 20 clients, and has approximately $100 billion in assets under administration.
Janet Dulohery, vice-president and head of human resources with Se2, said the company was still interested in “hearing from ambitious people who are similarly enthused about making a real impact on the US life and pension industry”.
The announcement is the latest jobs win for the Waterford region. Earlier this year healthcare company OPKO said it would create 200 highly skilled jobs over the next five years through the expansion of its EirGen Pharma facility in Westside Business Park in Waterford.

Se2 to double jobs at new Waterford operation


CEO says new office an ‘important milestone’ for the life and pensions administrator


Interpreting what central bank bosses are saying is a dark art, made none the easier by the determination of the monetary bosses to avoid leaving any hostages to fortune. And so we are not a lot wiser after Fed chair Janet Yellen’s much-awaited speech at the annual gathering of central bankers in Wyoming.
The economists in Wall Street were, as economists so often are, divided on what Yellen meant when she said that the case for a rate increase had been “strengthened” by recent data.
Some felt that this upped the odds of an interest rate increase at the end of September, or by December at the latest. Others felt that the fact that Yellen did not specifically hint at September suggested that another rate increase might be delayed.
All this may suit the Fed quite well, as like the rest of us it is not in possession of a working crystal ball to foretell what will happen in the future. The next marker in this regard will be the August US jobs report, due for publication next Friday. As this will be a key piece of data, its publication is likely to attract more than the usual frenzied attention from market analysts. If the number is strong, the odds on a September rate rise will grow.
You can’t help but thinking, however, that despite the market speculation about when exactly the Fed will move, there is a deeper story here. It is that world central banks are being left to do a lot of heavy lifting and that the era of low interest looks likely to go on . . . and on. Remember that even if the Fed does move, it will only bring base interest rates to between 0.25 and 0.5 per cent.
Deutsche Bank boss John Cryan this week accused the ECB’s low interest rate policy this week of “squeezing the margins of Europe’s struggling banks, making it harder for insurers to find profitable investments and dangerously distorting financial market prices.”
ADVERTISEMENT
There was more than a little self interest in Cryan’s comments – banks do not thrive when interest rates are low. But he is right too that these are not normal times. Low interest rates, which were meant to be temporary, are now looking at least semi-permanent.

Cantillon: Wall Street divided on Fed’s Janet Yellen’s speech


A strong August US jobs report will increase probability of September interest rate hike


Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Müller has said he will review the German car giant’s procurement strategy to avoid a repetition of the crippling supplier dispute that hit production at six plants this month.
VW will re-examine contracts that leave the group dependent on a single supplier after the dangers were highlighted by its damaging wrangle with Bosnian parts maker Prevent, Mr Müller said.
“We will of course look into questions such as multi-sourcing, single-sourcing,” he told reporters late on Monday. “We will look at our procurement contracts and try to optimise matters with all suppliers.”
Carmakers generally seek to avoid over-dependence on any one supplier and seek to duplicate critical relationships even at slightly higher unit costs.
But Car Trim and ES Automobilguss, two suppliers within privately held Prevent group, exposed a vulnerability when they halted seat cover and gearbox parts deliveries, triggering stoppages at VW assembly plants.
Diesel scandal
VW’s relationship with Prevent soured after it commissioned Car Trim to develop new seat covers for high-end models including Porsches and then cancelled the €500 million deal in the aftermath of the diesel scandal, refusing to cover the €58 million its supplier had already invested.
Parent company Prevent retaliated by moving some of Car Trim‘s financial claims against VW to Automobilguss, sole supplier of a key gearbox casing for VW’s top-selling Golf compact, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Separately, Volkswagen decided against suing South Korea over its decision last month to suspend sales of most of its models and a fine of 17.8 billion won (€14.35m) on the German carmaker.
Instead, Volkswagen will try to achieve certification for the affected models and resume sales quickly rather than taking on a lengthy legal process, a spokesman for Volkswagen’s South Korean unit said.
Last month, Korea revoked certification for 80 model variants of VW, Audi and Bentley vehicles on grounds that the German automaker fabricated certificates of vehicle emissions and noise-levels.

VW reviews procurement after dispute with parts supplier


Volkswagen to consider multi-suppliers after wrangle with Prevent hits production


UK consumers stepped up their spending in the second quarter and businesses increased investment as the economy showed few signs of reticence before the Brexit referendum in June.
Household spending rose 0.9 per cent from the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost two years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday. Business investment was up by 0.5 per cent.
Overall growth overall quickened to 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent, unrevised from an initial estimate. “Our survey returns, which include the period leading up to and immediately following the referendum, show no sign so far of uncertainty having significantly affected investment or GDP,” ONS chief economist Joe Grice said in a statement.
The decision to leave the European Union cast an abrupt shadow over the economy, prompting the Bank of England to cut interest rates this month and piling pressure on new prime minister Theresa May to deliver a tax and spending boost.
Tough times ahead
While surveys suggest the June 23rd referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers, tougher times may lie ahead as quickening inflation threatens to erode almost two years of real-wage growth.
The rise in business investment in the last quarter was driven by spending on transport equipment, including cars and planes, the ONS said.
The level of investment was 0.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. Net trade once again dragged on the economy, knocking 0.3 percentage points off growth in the second quarter as exports barely rose.
The 10 per cent fall in the trade-weighted value of the pound since the Brexit vote may aid exports but not by enough to prevent a sharp slowdown.
The economy will contract by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, according to economists polled by Bloomberg between August 5th and August 12th. The pound showed little response to the figures in early trading on Friday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Growth in the second quarter was heavily centred on April.
– Bloomberg

UK shoppers upped their spending just before Brexit vote, says survey


Businesses invested more in second quarter as economy showed few signs of uncertainty


The well-known Roy Fox gourmet food premises in the heart of Donnybrook village in Dublin 4 is on the market at over €400,000 through Vincent Finnegan Commercial.
Located in a pretty enclave just off Donnybrook Road, the shop has been trading for over 50 years in an area that has long been a destination for gourmet food lovers. It is beside Molloys fish shop and opposite Bective, Wesley and Belvedere rugby clubs, Bective and Donnybrook tennis clubs and Merrion Cricket Club.
The Roy Fox premises is a single retail unit with 57sq m (613sq ft) of retail space. It has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet food products.
It comes to the market with vacant possession and has a ratable value of €20,900 which gave a rates bill for 2016 of €5,350.
The shop was run for many years by Des Donnelly, an ebullient greengrocer who died in 2008.
Its colourful display of fresh produce bursting out of its premises was a much-loved sight in Donnybrook.
The property is zoned “Z4 District Centres” with the objective to “provide for and improve mixed-services facilities” in the current Draft Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022.

Roy Fox premises in Donnybrook for sale at over €400,000


Food premises has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet products


The European Commission has said there is no legal obligation for countries to use recovered state aid to pay down national debt.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, in the wake of a record ruling by the European Commission against Apple, a spokesman for the European commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that, like all state aid cases, “the amounts that are recovered by a member state in a state aid investigation simply go back to the member state’s budget and they can then, of course, use it for their own decisions.”
EU sources told The Irish Times that, while the European Commission could not legally instruct Ireland how to use the recovered falls, it was likely to strongly recommend that windfall gains are used to pay down the national debt.
In its most recent country-specific recommendation for Ireland, which marked Ireland’s exit from the EU’s excessive deficit procedure, the European Commission said Ireland should “use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction”.
In addition, the country should “reduce vulnerability to economic fluctuations and shocks, inter alia by broadening the tax base . . . enhance the quality of expenditure, particularly by increasing cost-effectiveness of healthcare and by prioritising government capital expenditure in R&D and in public infrastructure, in particular transport, water services and housing.”
Policy recommendation A high-ranking source in the European Commission explained there is a “policy recommendation, not a legally binding requirement” that Ireland should use any windfall cash for debt reduction.
He pointed to the “long-standing policy recommendation” of the commission that Ireland’s high level of debt should be reduced with any windfall, rather than using the cash for current or capital spending. This was reiterated as recently as earlier this year when the Commission published its recommendations for Ireland.
ADVERTISEMENT
They found that Ireland should: “Use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction.”
This is not a legal requirement, although any budget spending would have to conform to EU rules which limit the amount of current spending increases in any given year.
The revelation is likely to strengthen the hand of those arguing for the government to retain the Apple cash. Government ministers had previously insisted that even if Ireland kept the money, it would have to be all used for deficit reduction.
Unprecedented
While the established procedure in EU state aid cases is that recovered money returns to the national exchequer, officials pointed out that the Apple ruling is unprecedented in size. The previous record for an EU state aid judgment was a €1.3 billion ruling in 2014 involving Nürburgring racetrack in Germany.
The Apple judgment is also the first finding of its kind since the EU’s two-pack and six-pack rules were introduced at the height of the financial crisis. Like other bailout countries, Ireland is subject to additional layers of fiscal scrutiny than most other euro zone countries because it is continuing to repay bailout loans to other euro zone member states through the ESM fund.
All euro zone countries must submit their budgets to the European Commission by October 15th this year.
After more than three years of investigations, the European Commission ruled on Tuesday that Ireland had helped Apple to artificially reduce its tax burden for over two decades through two tax rulings it offered the company in 1991 and 2007.
Decision
EU politicians widely welcomed the European Commission’s decision. The centre-left Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament congratulated the commission on the finding and called on the EU to establish a common corporate consolidated tax base (CCCTB) that would be mandatory across the EU. Ireland has previously opposed such a move. A revised CCCTB proposal is expected from the Commission by the end of this year.
The payment of €13 billion, plus interest, demanded by the European Commission covers the years 2003 to 2014, though Ireland will be permitted to keep the payment in an escrow account pending appeal.
An appeal by Ireland and Apple could take up to six years according to European Commission officials as it is likely to go through both the General Court and European Court of Justice.

Commission says no legal obligation to use Apple tax cash for debt


Money in such instance goes back to member state and it makes its own decision on how to use it


Irish private placement issuance peaked at €121 billion in 2007 but had slumped to €29 billion by 2014, according to new research published by the Central Bank.
A private placement allows debt to be placed directly with investors without recourse to the public markets, and a re a sub-set of total bond issuance.
Back in 2007, on the cusp of the financial crisis, some €121 billion of these bonds by both Irish and IFSC banks were outstanding and were an important source of wholesale funding. However, by end-2014, the scale of the private placement market had diminished to € 29 billion, with a noted decline in holdings by Irish domestic banks by the end of the period surveyed. By 2014, IFSC banks had more private placement activity on balance sheets than domestic banks, the Central Bank found.
“With the onset of the financial crisis, the downgrading of banks credit ratings, and associated fall in investor condence, made it more dicult to roll-over extant funding and dissipated any appetite for new issuance,” the Central Bank said.
Up to 62 per cent of instruments placed privately were held by other financial sector entities at end-2014, with investment funds and money market funds the prevalent holders. German and French residents are estimated to be the largest euro area holders, but non-euro area holders held more than a quarter of the total, the research found.

Investors shunned Irish private placements in wake of financial crisis


Issuance of bond type vehicle peaked at €121bn in 2007 but slumped thereafter


Euro zone economic confidence worsened more than analysts predicted in August in a sign that the reverberations of Britain’s decision to leave the EU may finally be reaching companies and households.
An index of industry and consumer confidence fell to 103.5 from a revised 104.5, the European Commission in Brussels said on Tuesday. That compares with a median estimate of 104.1 in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and follows an unexpected increase in July.
With European Central Bank president Mario Draghi leaving it largely to economic data to fine-tune policy expectations before next week’s governing council meeting, the release provides a case for more stimulus to sustain the recovery and revive inflation.
Projections
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already cut its forecast for euro zone growth next year on the back of the Brexit vote, and the ECB will release new projections next week.
“The weakness in the August reading is broad-based across all countries, with some exceptions, and across sectors,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Banque Pictet and Cie SA in Geneva. “It’s another reason to be cautious and dovish for the ECB. Maybe not in the next weeks, but in the next months.”
Inflation in the currency bloc probably accelerated to 0.3 per cent in August from 0.2 per cent the month before, leaving it well below the ECB’s goal of just under 2 per cent, according to a separate survey.
Eurostat will release preliminary figures on Wednesday, along with jobless data that is expected to show the unemployment rate dropped to 10 per cent in July.
Industrial sector
Sentiment in the industrial sector fell to minus 4.4 from minus 2.6, the lowest level in 18 months, according to commission data. Confidence also slipped in services, retailing and among consumers, while a gauge for construction rose to an eight-year high.
Figures showed last week that confidence also subsided in the region’s two largest economies. Germany’s business climate as measured by Munich-based research institute Ifo unexpectedly declined the most in more than four years. Sentiment slipped in France, the nation’s statistics institute said.

Euro zone economic confidence worsens more than predicted


August weakness may be down to decision of Britain to leave EU


The European Commission faces one big job as it presents its ruling on Apple. Can it defend the formula it has presented for calculating what Apple owes?
The commission has accused the Irish Revenue Commissioners of having no proper technical basis for tax rulings made in relation to Apple in 1991 and 2007. In fact, its preliminary findings were that a kind of reverse engineering went on, under which both sides worked out how much tax Apple would pay, and a way was then found to achieve this.
But has the commission itself managed to come up with a defendable basis for what the bill should have been? The Government here will claim, with some force, that it has not and that its action in trying to do so is unprecedented and has no sound legal basis.
As the commission’s own deliberations have dragged on and on, and huge pressure from the United States has already been applied, it remains to be seen whether the competition directorate has come up with a clear formula which has a legal basis that will stand up in the European Court of Justice, which is where this is all going to end up.
It will face intense pressure in the days ahead of explaining the basis for its decision, with tax and legal experts immediately searching for holes. It remains to be seen just how robust the conclusions prove.
That is not to say that Ireland does not have a case to answer in the way Apple has been treated. Ministers and officials have tended to dismiss the investigation out of hand, rather than engaging in the detail of what actually happened. A key part of their response will be that the many of the key tax reliefs used by Apple and other US multinationals have now been closed off.
ADVERTISEMENT
Really what is going on here is a fight for tax dollars. The US wants more tax from its companies, and other European countries will argue that some of the tax which Ireland will be asked to collect actually should be going to them.
Apple, meanwhile, will say that it has applied the letter of the law. It is a mess, and how on earth the European courts will deal with it is anyone’s guess.

Cantillon: Commission faces intense pressure on Apple ruling


Can it defend formula it has presented for calculating what US tech giant owes?


Independent News & Media (INM), publisher of titles such as the Irish Independent, is to outsource some production and subediting functions of its newspapers to the international media group, the Press Association (PA), and is seeking 14 redundancies. The final number of jobs lost is expected to be higher, when contract roles are included.
INM said today it intends to “outsource the Dublin editorial production services to PA”, which it later clarified includes its copy editing function. It will also outsource some production roles, which it described as “quality control and archive” positions, to Belfast-based company, RE&D.
Stephen Rae, editor-in-chief of INM, said that while production will be outsourced, the process will continue to be “be managed by our editorial team at Talbot Street in Dublin”.
“We will continue to invest in good writing and content in our newspapers and online,” he said.
Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive, said “businesses need to adapt and innovate to survive and working with PA will allow us to maximise synergies and efficiencies”.
INM previously outsourced subediting – the correction of writing style and cutting of articles to size – to RE&D in 2007, but some of those roles later returned in-house.
The group, the largest newspaper publisher in Ireland whose main shareholder is Denis O’Brien, has notified staff of its intention to seek redundancies.
The company says it is seeking 14 job losses, although rumours swirled among staff that the final number could be almost double that figure, including contractors. INM said six contract roles expire before the year end.
The employees made redundant will not transfer to PA, it is understood.

Independent News & Media outsourcing newspaper production to PA


INM seeking 14 layoffs although staff fear close to double that will lose their jobs


Independent News & Media (INM) has reported relatively strong half year results in a challenged industry. But it needs to find suitable digital acquisition targets and execute buyouts, fast, if investors are to stay interested in its story.
Its results for the six months to the end of June show cash balances of €62.4 million, up by a whopping 76 per cent since this time last year. Fully one-third of its market value is attributable to cash, and at the current rate of generation, this could top 50 per cent early next year unless it finds buyout deals.
Challenges
Given the current challenges facing the newspaper industry, to be frantically looking for ways to spend your cash to drive future revenues is, in relative terms, a bit of a first world problem. But it is a still problem.
Stock market investors don’t buy into media companies to get a one-third slice of its bank account. That’s a boring story. They want a growth story instead, and INM needs digital acquisitions to deliver it.
But if INM appears too desperate to dig out suitable acquisitions and deploy its cash, it may end up overpaying on its targets.
It is a delicate balancing act for Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive who joined the group from Tesco. He indicated on Friday it has now widened its search for digital acquisition targets beyond the UK. In Ireland, it also wants to mop up smaller print assets.
Competition
Pitt also provided some colour on the type of digital businesses it wants to buy: “We are not looking for small start ups. We are not looking for turnarounds. We want to buy businesses that will have a positive impact on the bottom line as well as the top. They must be well defined [BUT NOT NICHE].”
ADVERTISEMENT
In other words, Pitt is targeting, in the UK and elsewhere, the same sort of value-accretive digital media businesses that every other traditional publisher with an eye on the future wants to buy. INM has competition for those assets.
The longer the group sits on its hands waiting for the right type of acquisition target at the right price to present itself, the less bang it will get for its buck as other media companies swarm the same pool, driving up prices.

If INM is to buy growth, former Tesco executive Pitt needs to go shopping


He will find it’s a competitive world out there


UBS has brought in psychologists, data scientists, shipments specialists and pricing experts to overhaul how it generates investment ideas and recommendations for clients.
Some investors have viewed the move with scepticism, but the investment bank says it has more than doubled readership of its research output in the past two years.
The revamp under Juan-Luis Perez, the global head of research who UBS poached from Morgan Stanley in 2013, comes at a time of existential crisis for the City of London’s sprawling research departments.
Banks and brokerages are preparing to abandon the age-old practice of “bundling” research costs with trading fees in order to satisfy new EU rules coming into force in 2018. UK-based banks expect the rules to be adopted despite Brexit.
Investors, already under pressure over the fees they charge their own clients and struggling with low interest rates, are expected to react by drastically reducing the volume of research they use.
Ask better questions
To thrive in the new era, Mr Perez said researchers must “ask better questions” rather than letting themselves off the hook with questions and buzzwords that are overly vague.
“This is the area where the sell side has to make the biggest investment, and we [the sellside] are not making as much of an investment as we have to,” said Mr Perez, a 30-year-veteran of sell-side research.
He brought in psychologists to help analysts think about their topics differently, and to pinpoint more precise and insightful research questions.
Words such as “risky” are discouraged, because Mr Perez said research showed “risky” could be interpreted as a risk of failure of between 10 and “80-something” per cent to investors.
“If you are using the word ‘risky’ all the time, you can never learn because the interpretation of risk is so broad that you can always take the victory lap,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s not just to avoid the word risky,” he added, but to “try to break down the big questions, like ‘what is the future of the bank into testable propositions?’, that can have an incontrovertible answer.”
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016

UBS hires psychologists to help revamp research reports


Banks to stop ‘bundling’ research costs with trading fees under new EU rules


The Revenue Commissioners has insisted that it always collected the full amount of tax due from Apple in accordance with Irish law.
In a statement after the EU ordered the Republic to collect €13 billion of back taxes after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid, Revenue’s chairman Niall Cody said: “The issue of international tax planning, involving mismatches between different countries’ tax rules, is well known and is the subject of the OECD Beps Project.”
He was referring to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting (Beps) project to stamp out tax avoidance loopholes internationally.
“Under Irish law, non-resident companies are chargeable to Irish corporation tax only on the profits attributable to their Irish branches by reference to the facts and circumstances,” Mr Cody said, adding that Revenue provided all relevant information and explanations to the European Commission as part of its investigation into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland.
“The profits of non-resident companies that are not generated by their Irish branches - such as profits from technology, design and marketing that are generated outside Ireland - cannot be charged with Irish tax under Irish tax law.”
Mr Cody said that Apple has confirmed on the public record that the relevant companies were not tax-resident in Ireland.
He said that Ireland showed no preference in applying the law in relation to Apple and that full tax due was paid in accordance with the law.

Revenue insists it collected all taxes Apple owed


Irish tax authority says it showed no preferential treatment in applying law to Apple


Thinking he needed to take up a “California sport,” Greg Gretsch started cycling in 1988, when he moved to the Bay Area to work in marketing at Apple after graduating from the University of Georgia. He bought a 10-speed road bike and joined a group of other Apple employees for a standing noon ride.
“I think I went four miles before I got dropped,” he said, a reference to being left behind by faster riders.
Today, Gretsch (49) is a founding partner with San Francisco-based Jackson Square Ventures, which makes early-stage investments in fledgling companies, including a social network and performance-tracking app for athletes call Strava.
He rides an average of five days a week on paved roads in the Bay Area and on trails near his second home near Lake Tahoe. Cycling is primarily for exercise and escape, he said, but it has also been good for his career. “Connecting with people is important to what I do, and you can learn a lot about a person, and from a person, on the bike,” said Gretsch, who founded three companies before going into venture capital in 2000 at a firm called Sigma Partners.
For many years, cycling has been the sport of choice for workers in the region’s highly competitive tech community, the antidote to more leisurely pursuits like golf. But just like golf, it has become a way for investors and executives to socialise and strike deals.
Fast-track connections
Max Levchin (41), one of the founders of PayPal who has a well-known cycling obsession, recalls how some people have tried to pitch ideas to him during his typically breakneck daily training sessions, cruising at more than 30km/h. “I’ve been pitched companies on the bike, but I tend to ride fairly fast,” said Levchin, who is an early-stage investor and chief executive of the San Francisco-based financial services company Affirm.
ADVERTISEMENT
It was through cycling that he got to know one of his Affirm co-founders, Jeffrey Kaditz. “We did a training ride,” Levchin said, “and he was one of the faster riders out there.”
Sami Inkinen, a co-founder of the real estate website Trulia and an accomplished triathlete, made the case for his startup, Virta Health, while on a ride this year with Levchin and another investor and cycling enthusiast, Raymond Tonsing of Caffeinated Capital. That was exceptional, Levchin recalled. “It’s rare that you have someone who can pitch a company while riding hard, and I’m not going to slow down.”
Tonsing invested shortly after the ride, and Levchin joined in several months later.
‘My shrink’
Steve Anderson, founder of Baseline Ventures, which was the first investor in Instagram, has heard investment ideas while cycling, “but mostly in the context of, ‘can you help me work through my pitch, and if you are interested, let’s talk about it later,’” he said. As a boy he rode 15km a day delivering newspapers, and he started riding again regularly 20 years ago. “It’s my exercise, my shrink and my Zen rolled into one,” he said.
Gretsch got to know the computer billionaire Michael Dell through cycling after Dell acquired the Sigma portfolio company EqualLogic in 2008 for $1.4 billion. The two met in Hawaii after the deal was completed and went cycling. “Outside of college, the strongest relationships I have are with people I have worked with or worked out with,” Gretsch said.
Venture capitalists, recruiters and other professional networkers have introduced cycling events throughout the Bay Area that focus on building camaraderie, not just lactic acid.
In May, Gretsch started inviting “Silicon Valley types” to join a monthly ride that typically meets near the Golden Gate Bridge and covers 30km to 50km around the Marin Headlands. This summer, Gretsch invited the group to a mountain bike ride near Lake Tahoe. The outing, which climbed to a gruelling 2,500m, included Andrew Buckley, who heads up cycling programmes at the Northstar California resort; Jake Knight, an entrepreneur whose family started Knight Transportation; and Anderson from Baseline Ventures.
Startup Ride
To find potential members of the group, called the JSV SF Startup Ride, Gretsch compares his company’s network of professional contacts with San Francisco Bay Area users on Strava, the app that lets users track and compare their times, distances and routes.
Some members of the group, which now has more than 40 members, are longtime acquaintances of his, but Gretsch said he had met new people on every ride and had “already seen one deal because of it”. He is still a regular at some of the continuing group rides in Silicon Valley – there are several of them, each with its own personality and pace. The Noon Ride, for example, meets every weekday, follows the same route around Palo Alto, and has nearly 150 members on Strava. “There are sometimes three group rides on any given day, from moderate to ‘kick you in the butt,’” said Jeff Selzer, general manager of Palo Alto Bicycles, which opened in 1930.
“What I like about cycling is a ride can be any length, and most people know how to ride a bike,” said Ali Behnam, co-founder of Riviera Partners, a national recruiting company that counts Dropbox, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Uber among its clients. “Golf is a big-time commitment, and it requires practice to be reasonably good,” he said. “There is nothing worse than stepping up to a tee and duffing it.”
Cycling, by contrast, is communal and lends itself to the formation of common bonds, whether it’s because of the lung-burning sensations of a hard climb, the endorphin-inducing thrill of a big descent, the expense of the equipment or the form-fitting attire. “You can’t hide much,” said Behnam (49), who has been cycling for 17 years, “but usually there is food and drink involved.”
ADVERTISEMENT
In the spring, he participated in the Bottega Gran Fondo, a cycling and culinary event in Napa Valley. He has organised several group rides with cycling celebrities, including the former professionals Gary Fisher and Bob Roll, who is best known for his Tour de France commentary.
With these rides, Behnam said, there is some unspoken etiquette. Fellow cyclists should not monopolise one person’s time, and, unless the group is exceptionally competitive, “You don’t want to just drop the person you’re riding with,” he said. “Don’t try to crush them.”
Likewise, participants should not claim to be “big” cyclists if they are in fact recreational riders – especially if they are trying to win the trust of prospective business contacts.
Before riding with anyone new, Levchin usually does a quick search on Strava to get a read on the person’s experience. “If I think it will be painfully slow,” he said, “I suggest we go for coffee.”
– New York Times News Service

Cycling - the ‘in’ sport in Silicon Valley


Get on your bike if you want to meet leading investors or start-up bosses and start pedalling


Most Asian share markets tumbled on Monday while the US dollar added to gains made after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated a US interest rate increase remains on the cards for this year.
European markets also looked set for a weak start, with financial spreadbetters expecting Germany’s DAX to open down 0.7 per cent, and the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 to begin the day 0.6 per cent lower. British markets are closed for a holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended losses to 1 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei bucked the trend, closing 2.3 per cent higher, the biggest one-day gain in three weeks, as the yen weakened against the resurgent dollar. China’s CSI 300 index and the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.4 per cent.
The case for a US rate hike has strengthened in recent months, with a lot of new jobs being created, and economic growth looks likely to continue at a moderate pace, Yellen said in a speech at the Fed’s annual monetary policy conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday. While Yellen did not give guidance on what the central bank needs to see before raising rates, she said the Fed already thinks it is close to meeting its goals of maximum employment and stable prices. The odds of a hike in September rose to 33 per cent following the comments, from 21 per cent on Thursday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Traders were pricing in a 59.1 per cent chance of a hike in December, up from 51.8 per cent on Thursday.
“While the move towards another Fed rate hike will likely cause bouts of consternation in investment markets I don’t see the same degree of uncertainty that we saw around last year’s Fed rate hike,” Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney, wrote in a note. “It’s clear from the Fed’s actions this year that it is aware of global risks, the impact of its own actions on those risks and any potential blow back to the US economy and of the impact of a rising U.S. dollar in doing some of its work for it.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The comments from Yellen and Fischer dragged Wall Street lower at the close. But they proved a boon for the US currency, with the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six global peers, jumping 0.8 per cent on Friday. It held steady at 95.552 on Monday. The dollar rose 0.5 per cent to a two-week high of 102.34 yen on Monday. That followed gains of 1.3 per cent on Friday, its biggest one-day advance in almost seven weeks.
Japanese household spending and retail sales data for July are due on Tuesday. Investors are seeking some sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s massive stimulus programmes are having an effect, after figures on Friday showed a decline in consumer prices by the most in three years in July.
The euro was flat at $1.120 after tumbling 0.8 percent on Friday, its biggest one-day slide since July 15. In commodities, crude prices retreated on the rally in the dollar and concerns about growing output after exports from Iraq in August exceeded July levels. Iran also said late last week that it would only cooperate in upcoming producer talks in September if other exporters recognized Tehran’s right to regain market share lost during international sanctions that were only lifted in January.
US crude futures dropped 1.5 percent to $46.95. Global benchmark Brent crude retreated 1.2 per cent to $49.31. The stronger dollar also weighed on gold. Spot gold slipped 0.2 per cent to $1,318.10, after earlier touching a five-week low.
Reuters


US dollar adds to gains made after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated a US interest rate increase remains on the cards for this year


The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:
Revenue Science ► A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.
Google Ads ► Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.
Digital Analytics ► This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.
Dart for Publishers ► This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.
ComScore ► ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.
Local Targeting ► Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.
Grapeshot ► We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.
Subscriptions Online ► Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.
Add This ► Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.

Know Your Pompey: Colchester Connections


Know your Pompey is back to put your Blues knowledge to the test.


Enda Stevens saluted Pompey’s new-found resilience after their latest clean sheet.
The Blues chalked up their third shutout in four games with their 1-0 success at Exeter.
Paul Cook’s side withstood a late charge from the Grecians after Gary Roberts put them in front with five minutes remaining.
But they put their bodies on the line to see out the game for the three points.
Stevens took satisfaction from his side’s resilience.
He said: ‘We’re away from home so we have to be careful at times.
‘We went to Morecambe and we found ourselves 2-0 down and chasing the game.
‘So, my view, was we needed to keep a clean sheet and let the attackers do the attacking.
‘It was a bit scrappy at times but we got the play in the second half and that clean sheet counted.
‘They were going to come to us and throw bodies at us after we scored. It was up to us to throw bodies on the line and defend properly.
‘There were last-ditch tackles but we deserved the clean sheet.’
Stevens felt keeper David Forde was an important cog in the defensive unit which repelled Exeter.
He said: ‘Clean sheets are what we hope for.
‘That’s our aim as a back four with Fordey behind us.
‘I thought he was excellent. He’s really come in and helped us massively.
‘He’s commanding and helped in the dressing room.
‘He comes for everything and give us confidence.
Stevens also drew confidence from Pompey putting two successes together on the bounce.
He said: ‘Back-to-back wins are important and winning away for the first time is important after a bit of a sluggish start.
‘It’s momentum and we have to take this forward into the two home games we have coming up in the league.
‘We have to keep up the level of performance and put the points on the board.’
– JORDAN CROSS

Can this be Enda of Pompey shipping late goals?


Enda Stevens saluted Pompey’s new-found resilience after their latest clean sheet.