WEEKEND DIGEST:The Irish Mail of Sunday returns to a story from last week with a report that the Competition Authority has conducted raids on another two of Ireland's leading bakeries as part of an investigation into alleged price-fixing.
Neither Johnston Mooney & O’Brien and Pat the Baker, reported to be the subject of the latest raids, nor the Competition Authority, has commented on the reports, according to the paper.
Last week, the Mail reported that Brennans, the largest player in the Irish bakery market, and Irish Pride had been subject to visits from the regulator. Again, neither company has commented on the matter.
Irish Pride’s owners, One51, is understood to be looking to sell the business.
One ofthe best-known frozen food brands is on the market, according to the Sunday Telegraph, with the owner of Birds Eye, Iglo Group, putting itself up for sale with a price tag of €3 billion.
Iglo, which also owns the Findus brand in Italy, was acquired from Unilever in 2006 for €1.7 billion by private equity group Permira. Now, following a number of approaches, it has appointed Credit Suisse to oversee a process that is likely to attract the attention of a clutch of private equity buyout specialists.
Oliver Tattanis getting back into the private health insurance market, according to a report yesterday in the Sunday Times.
The founder of Vivas is reported to have teamed up again with Jim Dowdall and Stephen Loughman, who are both listed as directors in the new entity, Jdslot.
Dowdall was formerly operations director at Vivas, which was taken over by Hibernian in 2008. He later became head of Irish business for the Hibernian business under its new name, Aviva.
Loughman was a founding shareholder in Vivas and has also been involved with Tattan in Insurance Regulatory Capital, a business targeting mid-sized insurers.
Tattan, who was previously the head of the VHI, was among those looking to buy Quinn Healthcare out of administration but lost out.