Farmers are weighing a bid to take over Glanbia Ireland, the Republic's biggest dairy company, the Sunday Business Post reports.
Glanbia co-op, owned by farmers who supply milk to the company, holds 60 per cent of the dairy processor, best-known to shoppers for products including Avonmore milk. Glanbia plc, the Co Kilkenny-based, Dublin-listed food group, owns 40 per cent.
Accountants KPMG will recommend a bid for the remaining 40 per cent of Glanbia Ireland to the co-op board in a report due for delivery shortly.
“Based on a valuation range of eight to 10 times earnings, which is typical for a primary dairy business, the transaction would probably cost Glanbia Co-op and its dairy farmer members in the region of €400 million to €500 million,” says the Sunday Business Post.
Race for Point Square
US property investor Kennedy Wilson is in pole position to buy Point Square on Dublin's docks, according to the Sunday Times.
Built by developer Harry Crosbie next to the 3Arena, and formerly known as Point Village, the block includes offices, an Odeon cinema and parking spaces. Anchor tenant Dunnes Stores has yet to open there.
The newspaper reports that Kennedy Wilson has emerged as the preferred bidder for the property. Grant Thornton, the receiver appointed by the National Asset Management Agency to Point Square, offered it for sale in July with a guide price of €75 million.
British homeowners cash in
Elderly British homeowners cashed in almost €1 billion worth of equity from their properties in the 14 months to June this year, according to the Observer newspaper.
The British Sunday newspaper reports that equity release, where mainly over 55s borrow cash against the value of their homes, is becoming “more mainstream with an increasing number of deals and lower rates available”.
It adds that research from equity release adviser Key found that between April 2020 and June this year “older homeowners withdrew £830 million [€936 million] from their homes”.
Property owners gave more than half the cash to children or other family members to allow them buy their own homes, the newspaper says.
Warning over RTÉ cash
Funding a new regulator to oversee broadcasters and social media companies from the TV licence could cut the cash available to RTÉ, watchdogs have warned politicians, says the Sunday Independent.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) wrote recently to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and Media on the proposed Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, according to the newspaper.
Its letter points out that funds available from TV licences are declining. "For this reason, reapportioning part of these funds to part-finance the Media Commission would reduce funds available to RTÉ to discharge its public service remit," the Sunday Independent reports the authority as saying.
