Minister not sold on flogging naming rights:MINISTER FOR Transport Leo Varadkar appears to be leaving no stone unturned in an effort to generate additional revenues for the exchequer.
The sale of the State’s 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus was flagged by him many months ago and confirmed this week by his Cabinet colleague Brendan Howlin.
An altogether more left-field idea has been under consideration in recent months. I’m told that the Minister has considered selling off the naming rights to some public assets, including the Luas and the Port Tunnel in Dublin.
Emirates Tunnel anyone? Or how about the Tesco Express for Luas?
Varadkar asked the Rail Procurement Agency and the National Roads Authority respectively to look at the feasibility of such moves. Both were cool on the idea, suggesting it wouldn’t yield much for the State’s coffers.
It seems Varadkar got the idea from a proposal last year from Brigitte Lehmann, a woman living in Belgium, to rename Cork Airport after musician Rory Gallagher, who lived in Cork and is buried there.
The Gallagher suggestion struck a bum note with Varadkar in his reply on October 25th.
“As you may be aware, Cork airport is loss-making and heavily in debt,” he said. “My priority is to ensure that the airport survives the recession and that jobs and connectivity are protected.
“In this context, it might be worth considering auctioning the naming rights to a campaign or company but I have not given that much thought.”
Going native is hte key to growth at a gallop
THE GALLOP of Cork-based outsourcing group SouthWestern shows no signs of slowing. It has just set up a sales office in London with four staff to market its business process activities to potential clients in the UK.
It’s also planning to add 100 staff to its Clonakilty head office this year to supplement the 550 staff already in situ. Similar job creation took place in 2011.
On Wednesday, chief executive Jim Costello told me that the company’s turnover in 2011 rose by 23 per cent to €25 million. “Profits grew also,” he added. “We had very strong growth last year.”
At home, SouthWestern, which is owned by Ion Equity, numbers Bord Gáis, Eircom and various government departments and public bodies among its clients.
But about 20 per cent of its revenues are generated outside Ireland (it has 150 staff in Lodz, Poland) and Costello is keen to grow this figure.
Having previously held outsourcing contracts for Irish companies in the UK – Kerry Group and Independent News Media among them – SouthWestern wants to go native.
“We want to sell to local customers now,” he said. “The UK is the biggest outsourcing market in Europe, worth about £80 billion. The potential is huge.
“We’re hoping to double our business over the next three years and expect a large amount of that to come from the UK.”
He expects this to lead to job creation in Ireland, with at least 100 new positions a year being created for the foreseeable future.
“We can clip along at that rate for some time,” he said confidently. “Absolutely no problem. Outsourcing could be a major revenue earner for Ireland. Hopefully we’ll be displacing jobs from the UK.”
PR firms keep it in the family
AS IT gears up to mark 40 years in business here, Wilson Hartnell Public Relations, or WHPR as it is better known, is set to take Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Irish operation under its umbrella from March 1st.
H+K will continue to serve its existing clients, which include ERP (the European Recycling Platform) and footwear group Crocs. It also handled PayPal’s major jobs announcement this week. H+K will be led by Maeve Governey, who will report to WHPR MD Brian Bell. H+K made its former head Kieran O’Byrne redundant in January. O’Byrne has since started up his own business, called Communications Consultants Ireland.
WHPR is part of Ogilvy Mather Ireland, which in turn is a member of the Ogilvy Public Relations network globally. WHPR, Ogilvy and H+K are all owned by WPP, the worldwide marketing communications services group. This new arrangement keeps it in the family, so to speak.
Clinton adjusts Teneo role
FORMER US president Bill Clinton’s relationship with the Declan Kelly-led advisory and merchant banking group Teneo has changed recently from that of adviser to now being a client of the company.
Rumours had been circulating that Clinton and Teneo had parted company. Clinton was chairman of New York-based Teneo’s advisory board.
Tipperary man Kelly has been associated with Clinton for a number of years, and was appointed US economic envoy to Northern Ireland by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in September of 2009, a role he no longer holds.
A spokesman for Clinton clarified the change in relationship.
“President Clinton is a friend and an unpaid adviser to Teneo and its founders,” he said in a statement.
“His advisory board role at Teneo transitioned at the end of 2011 when he asked the company to represent him going forward in a personal capacity.
“Declan Kelly, one of Teneo’s founders, was instrumental in setting up the recent Irish investment forum and working with President Clinton to bring American companies to the table.
“In addition to representing President Clinton personally, Teneo will continue to work on a pro bono basis to expand participation in the Clinton Global Initiative and support for the Clinton Foundation’s activities around the world.”
Clinton’s role as an adviser has been removed from the Teneo website.
Now in its second year, Teneo has 90 staff and claims to have just added offices in Beijing, Dubai, Zurich, Washington DC and Hong Kong.
.... and some little things
REPORTS ON Wednesday that Barclays Capital had secured the lucrative gig to advise on the sale of Bord Gáis Eireann’s energy business for the State raised the hackles of local financiers, crestfallen at the thought that there might not have been a beauty parade to decide the issue.
It turns out that Barclays was involved in a “desktop exercise” to “cent check” some figures relating to BGE for New Era, a division of the National Treasury Management Agency dealing with the Government’s holdings in the commercial semi-State sector. This work was worth about €20,000 to Barclays.
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As the clock ticks down on potential bids for Eircom, I understand that its adviser Morgan Stanley has canvassed 200 potential investors.
A handful of enquiries are believed to have been lodged to date. March 12th is the deadline for offers to restructure Eircom’s debts.
