Ashley plots bid for Debenhams Ireland
The Sunday Business Post reports that Heatons, the Irish department store controlled by Mike Ashley, is considering a potential bid for Debenhams' Irish unit, which is in examinership. Heatons has 81 outlets across Ireland. Debenhams has 11 stores.
AvantCard to re-enter Irish market
The
Sunday Times
reports that AvantCard, the former MBNA credit card company that closed to new business in 2012 when it was bought by private equity firm Apollo, plans to re-enter the Irish market later this year.
Average monthly spending on credit cards has fallen by 36 per cent since 2007.
National minimum wage may rise 25%
The Low Pay Commission will next month recommend a 25 per cent pay increase in the national minimum wage, from €9.15 an hour to €11.50, according to the
Sunday Business Post
.
Employers have warned that there is no justification for another rise, after 124,000 low-paid workers benefited from a 50 cent wage increase earlier this year.
Cerberus set to foreclose on Nama employee
US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is set to foreclose on the loans of a
National Asset Management Agency
employee, the
Sunday Independent
reports.
Best known for its €1.6 billion purchase of Nama’s Northern Irish portfolio, Cerberus has bought €18.8 billion in Irish real estate loans in the last two years.
The unnamed Nama employee made all the appropriate declarations when joining the agency and is liaising with Cerberus through a third party, the report said.
O2 eyed by private equity firms
Two of Europe’s biggest private equity companies,
Apax
and
CVC Capital
, are weighing a bid for O2 in the UK, led by Dublin-born Ronan Dunne, according to the
Sunday Times
.
Mr Dunne was reported last month to be exploring a £10 billion (€12.7 billion) private equity-backed management buyout of the company after its planned purchase by Hutchison Whampoa from Telefónica was shot down by competition authorities.
Ganley’s Rivada bids for $10bn
Mexican contract
Businessman Declan Ganley's Rivada Networks is vying with global communications firms for a wholesale Mexican radio spectrum contract worth over $10.9 billion (€8.9 billion), according to the Sunday Business Post.
Mr Ganley confirmed the bid but not the value of the contract. Rivada is also bidding for a contract to roll out a new US network dedicated to public safety.
