Tracker mortgages

A casebook of almost 500 complaints relating to the loss by homeowners of cheap tracker mortgages has been sent by the Financial Services Ombudsman to the Central Bank.

The files will now form part of the regulator's wide-ranging investigation into why lenders refused to allow thousands of borrowers to return to tracker terms after fixing their mortgage rates temporarily, according to the Sunday Times.

Vulture funds blitz

The

Sunday Business Post

said a number of so-called vulture funds are preparing to pull the trigger on hundreds of business foreclosures and property receiverships in the aftermath of the general election.

The paper said that the private equity giants, who have spent tens of billions of euro acquiring distressed Irish loan books, have secretly briefed insolvency practitioners to be ready for a blitz over the coming months.

Management wages cut

Providence Resources, headed by Tony O’Reilly jnr, has slashed up to 20 per cent from its management wages bill while the junior oil explorer seeks farm-out partners to help develop its oil exploration assets around Ireland, the

Sunday Times

reported.

The company saw its share price rise by more than 25 per cent last week, to close at 17cent, as a possible farm-out partner emerged and interest in Irish offshore oil exploration increased.

Fastnet buys Amryt

Dublin-listed Fastnet Equity plans to buy privately owned

Amryt Pharmaceuticals

, according to reports in both the

Sunday Times

and the

Sunday Independent

.

The reverse takeover will allow Amryt to gain access to public markets without the expensive and often tortuous IPO process, The Sunday Independent said.

The new entity will be chaired by Harry Stratford, the founder of pharmaceuticals giant Shire.