Sky will enter the Irish mobile market next year using the Vodafone network following a wholesale agreement between the two companies, writes Laura Slattery. The addition of Sky Mobile will make the European pay-TV provider a "quad" player, offering TV, broadband, home phone and mobile services.
Irish aircraft leasing firms plan to sever lease agreements with Russian airlines and recover their aircraft from Russia in compliance with EU sanctions, an industry group has confirmed. Simon Carswell reports that all EU-based lessors have only a few weeks to terminate contracts and find their planes.
As Russia's war with Ukraine stretches on, Mark Paul takes an in-depth look at the Irish companies that have been trading behind Putin's iron curtain in recent years. A small but heavily exposed group of Irish manufacturing businesses have invested hundreds of millions in operations in Russia, with such efforts now plunged into huge uncertainty, he writes.
Mark considers the wider issue of investing in so-called Bric countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – in his Caveat column, noting that for a long time, the gilded Brics narrative seemed to have no downside.
AIB said on Thursday it is in talks to buy back some of the State's shares in the bank as part of a plan to hand over €213 million to shareholders though dividends and stock repurchases. The move, Joe Brennan reports, comes after the bank swung into a net profit for 2021.
Plans for around 50,000 new houses in the Republic could end up in court, Michael Stanley, chief executive of builder Cairn Homes, predicted on Thursday. Barry O'Halloran and Ciara O'Brien have more on the warning, which came as Cairn posted a €58 million profit for last year.
We still have a way to go to tackle barriers to women's participation at work, argues John FitzGerald in his Economics column this week. He suggests that the pandemic may have been positive in this regard by forcing innovation in the workplace and points out that employers have in the past missed out on an opportunity to attract valuable women employees.
As the return to the office continues, Olive Keogh advises employers needto listen to their staff and consider their concerns about the change. Talking is necessary, she writes.
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