From Apple’s record valuation to Zara’s share surge: An A-Z of financial markets in 2024
It was a challenging year for some listed companies and a record year for CEO departures
Xavier Niel
The French billionaire who will hold on to Eir ‘until the day I die’
Worth an estimated €10bn, Niel is one of your ‘always on’ kind of entrepreneurs
Xavier Niel starts to mop-up US hedge funds’ Eir shares
French billionaire moving to take full control of telecoms firm
Eir revenues increase by 2% as more mobile and broadband customers sign up
Company says broadband and mobile customers rose by 148,000 year on year in first quarter
Eir likely to scale back dividends after €2bn in payouts since French takeover, says Moody’s
Ratings agency expects dividends to fall to no more than €150m this year and next as it raises outlook on telecom’s junk-rated debt
Airport operator DAA should ignore ‘arbitrary’ passenger cap in Dublin, says Michael O’Leary
Seen & Heard: RTÉ contracts come to an end, Eir dividends rise above €1bn, Kildare Village revenue jumps and stock exchange left out of financial strategy
Eir owner Xavier Niel to invest €200m in artificial intelligence
Intended projects include cloud supercomputer as Europe looks to compete with US and China in new technology
Eir paid out dividends of €1.85bn since French billionaire takeover
Telco said its fibre broadband customer base increased by 2 per cent year on year to 852,000 customers
Big Eir shareholder Xavier Niel and billionaire Daniel Kretinsky compete for control of French grocery chain Casino
Two competing groups offer cash injections as French supermarket races to restructure debts
Eir’s biggest backer in line to reap major dividend
Seen and heard: Broadband subsidies, private housing gloom and Kingspan’s Grenfell recall
The A to Z of financial markets in 2021
Apple soared and Zoom slumped in a year that saw markets surge to record levels
Europe’s telecoms giants eye deals – but is it too late to beat private equity?
Deal hesistancy followed regulators’ blocking of bid for Telefonica’s UK business
Eir planning to sell almost half of Irish fibre network
Financial advisory firm Lazard engaged to advise on possible transaction
Eir’s owner Xavier Niel looks to take his business private
French telecoms billionaire launches offer to buy out his €11bn Iliad telecoms empire
Virgin Media Ireland revenues rise 3% in first half of 2021 as data usage soars
Telecoms group also points to advertising recovery at Virgin Media Television
Eir looks to recapture lost ground from Virgin in telecoms arms race
Customers trying to get through to us had a really hard time, says Eir boss Carolan Lennon
If sport is not a ‘game changer’ for Eir, what will be?
Cantillon: Its rights ambitions likely faded with regime change, long before Covid-19
Future of Eir Sport in doubt after parent steps back from rights auctions
Eir points to Covid impact on live sports across the world
European stocks fall as investors turn cautious
CRH leads Dublin market higher, while sterling rises against dollar and euro
Eir boss backs plan for organic food ‘champion’
Xavier Neil joins with two French businessmen in sustainable consumer goods Spac
French billionaire Patrick Drahi offers €2.5bn for Altice Europe
Investors taking European telecoms companies private as share prices drift lower
Pro14 inter-pros denied a full home audience due to Eir and Virgin dispute
296,200 Virgin subscribers won’t have access after Eir removed its channels from platform
Virgin Media vows to withhold sports channels until Eir ‘pays its bill’
Dispute between telecoms rivals flares up as postponed European football reaches climax
Iseq lags behind its peers as European mood rises on trade deal hopes
Poor day on Dublin exchange for building and housing stocks, while FBD insurance group falls
The win-some, lose-some game of TV sports rights
For fans, it’s frustrating. For media companies, it’s expensive and perilous.
Siro now a serious challenger to Eir in fibre arms race
Siro boss John Keaney says telco is about to deepen operations in Cork and Galway and take the fight to Eir in Dublin’s suburbs
Markets calmed as Trump offers hope of a trade deal with China
Sterling slips on concerns that the next UK prime minister may push for hard Brexit
European investor to acquire Dublin’s Conrad Hotel for €118m
Archer Hotel Capital to add five-star Earlsfort Terrace property to €2bn portfolio
Telecoms tycoon Niel to sell mobile towers to Cellnex for $3bn
Businessman’s company Iliad burned through €1.44bn in cash in 2018
Chairman of Eir owner Illiad fined €600,000 for insider trading
Fine relates to Iliad’s attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA in July 2014
Xavier Niel faces delay in Eir dividend after refinancing
Telecom firm hit with more debt to help make €400m payment to US hedge funds
Eir hedge funds ‘dividend’ upped amid €1.15bn debt-raise
Dividend replaces loan note the funds received for some of their shares last year
Eir investors’ €300m payday stokes unpleasant memories
Latest moves will leave Eir with high debt level of 4.1 times its earnings
Two US hedge funds to share €300m special dividend from Eir
French billionaire Xavier Niel firms, which control Eir, not to take dividend at this time
Eir’s odyssey may face further twist as investor Iliad struggles
Markets Beat: Price-cutting French phone company now being beaten at its own game
Eir remains stale as French fillip fails to materialise
Cuts put respectable sheen on half-year results but customer service woes not helping
Will Eir’s €500m investment change the broadband game?
Eir takes aim at Virgin as questions about the Government’s NBP project grow
Eir’s market share in Dublin underscores disaster that was privatisation
Flipped several times and starved of investment, firm attempts to regain lost ground
The Irish media year in review: From the INM drama to TV3’s reinvention
After an eventful 12 months, there may not be much in the way of let-up in 2019
France’s internet bad boy puts his money where his mouth is
Xavier Niel is sponsoring budding entrepreneurs such as former car thief Tally Fofana
France faces growing threat of skills shortages
A key dynamic that could put a brake on France’s growth is difficulties in recruiting
€38m sought for three-storey office block at Citywest
Eir leasing 77,000sq ft in premier space on long 25-year lease with no break options
Glen Killane joins EBU as deputy director of sport
Former Eir Television managing director left the organisation earlier this year
Cardinal Carlyle seek up to €110m for Payzone
Seen & Heard: Eir cuts costs, Clerys’ future, K Club on the market
Eir’s broadband market dominance ‘to detriment’ of consumers
Rival operators say they face more than twice the fees for connecting clients as firms in UK
Eir’s earnings rise but revenue falls as acquisition deal concludes
Teleco saw revenue fall 2 per cent to €955 million in nine months to end of March
PAC to ‘recommend shake-up’ of State’s corporate tax structure
Seen & Heard: BAI ‘had delayed’ Xavier Niel’s takeover of Eir over concerns
Deja vu all over again as Eir’s new French owners hang up on 750 workers
Meanwhile it appears investors in the bonds issued by Rusal Capital in Ireland are trapped
Dublin bemused as UK Brexit point man drops clangers
Business Week: Also in news were repossessions, building, and job losses at Eir
Eir plan to cut 750 jobs may cost over €100m
Cost-cutting plan announced days after French takeover of phone group
Sammon construction group in examinership, management exits at Eir, and CRH pay
Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from ‘The Irish Times’ business desk
French billionaire to complete Eir takeover ‘within weeks’
Companies controlled by telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel set to complete takeover in €3.5bn deal
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