Hello and welcome to our weekly digest of business, financial and economic news from around Ireland.
Property investor Iput is planning a large-scale redevelopment of the Harcourt Centre, at the bottom of Harcourt Street, Dublin, writes Linda Daly.
The company has applied to the city council for permission to demolish blocks two and three on the site, a pair of 1980s seven and eight-storey buildings.
The basements will be retained but an 11-storey, 18,200 sq m mixed-use building will be built on top.
Most of the space will be used for offices over ten floors. At street level, there will be a community and cultural space, which will include a library, events venue and café. Iput said the redevelopment would “build on our record of creating landmark office buildings”.
The buildings that adjoin the EY building at the Harcourt Centre are occupied by various tenants including audit, tax and advisory firm Forvis Mazars and law firm Eversheds Sutherland. Iput bought the blocks in 2013.
The offices are right beside Harcourt, the Luas Green line stop, and Iput is looking to reduce the 44 car parking spaces in the basement to eight.
At the end of last year Iput had 70 properties in its portfolio with a net asset value of €1.8 billion.
Niall Gaffney, the chief executive of Iput, told Green Street News in May that the company planned to bring 29 Earlsfort Terrace to the market in autumn as a potential headquarters pre-let. It will start building on the site in 2027.
2. Smiles that say: we’re in profit
Lisa and Vanessa Creaven co-founded Spotlight Oral Care, which has made an operating profit of €640k
Spotlight Oral Care, the dental products company founded by sisters Lisa and Vanessa Creaven, and Barry Buckley, a fellow dentist, had an operating profit in the year to June 2024 despite a drop in sales, writes Brian Carey.
The company, which operates the Spotlight and Made by Dentists brands, made an operating profit of €640,000 on sales of €17.1 million, which compares with losses of €340,000 and revenues of €18.1 million in the previous year.
Sales grew 31 per cent in America and the company expected to post revenues of $10 million in this “priority market” in the period to the end of June. The Made by Dentists brand is sold through Amazon, Target.com and “a large and influential retail chain” in the US. Its growing range of toothpaste, toothbrushes and whiteners are sold as Spotlight Oral Care in the UK and Europe.
Development Capital invested €12.3 million in the company by way of preference shares in 2021. This can be redeemed by the company up to July next year, or by the holders after that. The directors said they were reviewing options with regard to the shares.
Brian Caulfield, the tech investor, and Barry Connolly, of Richmond Marketing, are also investors.
3. Central Bank staff to face happy meal increase
The Central Bank announced the price increases at its Dublin docklands campus
ALAMY
The Central Bank of Ireland is raising prices on subsidised meals, drinks and snacks at its staff restaurant and café for the first time in 16 years to take account of food inflation and higher wages, writes Jon Ihle.
The Central Bank told employees through a series of cascade meetings at its Dublin docklands campus last month that a phased increase in prices would begin from July and continue for several years to rebalance the cost-sharing ratio between staff and the institution. Senior management also circulated supporting slides explaining the need for the rises after a freeze on prices since 2009.
It is understood that higher food and labour costs from catering suppliers, but static prices for staff, meant the Central Bank was covering roughly 70 per cent of every tea, coffee, sandwich and hot dinner purchased at its facilities.
“Central Bank of Ireland provides subsidised catering for all staff as an important aspect of our overall workplace value offering,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “We aim to have a 50-50 cost-sharing approach. However, our ratio has shifted due to the significant increases in food inflation and rising labour costs. To address this and ensure we are on an appropriate and sustainable footing, we have implemented staff price increases from July 1.”
Remuneration for the Central Bank’s 2,263 staff rose by 10 per cent last year, taking the average salary to €88,400. This year, its employees will be receiving two pay rises.
4. Cruinn Diagnostics lines up potential €50m sale
MML Ireland’s Rory Quirke and Neil McGowan
BRYAN MEADE FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
The owners of Cruinn Diagnostics, one of Ireland’s leading independent laboratory equipment providers, are exploring a sale, The Sunday Times understands, writes Linda Daly.
Sources say the company, whose shareholders include the private equity group MML Ireland and Patrick Hickey, the founder of Hickey’s Pharmacy, could sell for €50 million.
Other shareholders include Vincent Foley and Jack Nolan, founders of Cruinn Diagnostics, as well as Peter Hussey, the company’s technical director.
The state-backed MML, headed by Rory Quirke and Neil McGowan, took a big minority stake in Cruinn in 2021, when it reportedly invested €12 million.
The investment was made through the €145 million MML Growth Capital Partners Ireland Fund II, which was supported by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, AIB and international institutional investors.
Cruinn Diagnostics was set up in 1998 and supplies laboratory diagnostic instruments and consumables to hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, veterinary practices, universities and independent testing laboratories. It also provides calibration and testing services.
According to its latest accounts, the company reported revenues of €38.7 million in 2023 and a pre-tax profit of €4 million. The shareholders declared a dividend of just under €4.5 million in 2023, and €2.5 million in 2022.
Its latest accounts said the company, which is based at Park West industrial estate in Dublin, employed 93 people. On its website, MML says its investment in Cruinn — which translates to accurate in Irish — helped the company reorganise the shareholder base, facilitating an exit for retiring shareholders, a partial divestment for rolling management shareholders, as well as creating an equity pot for senior management.
MML Ireland declined to comment.
5. Makhlouf: Central banks at risk of political meddling
Gabriel Makhlouf did not mention Donald Trump directly
EAMONN FARRELL/ROLLINGNEWS.IE
Gabriel Makhlouf, the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, has warned that political circumstances could change the role of central banks, making them less independent and more beholden to elected leaders, writes Jon Ihle.
In remarks delivered yesterday to the Rencontres Economiques conference in Aix-en-Provence, France, Makhlouf said central banks were entrusted with independent powers to set monetary policy after many governments failed to deal with inflation between the 1960s and 1980s.
However, he told the gathering of economists and policymakers — which included Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank — that the consensus supporting the status quo might not be stable, despite the success of the ECB and the US Federal Reserve in controlling post-pandemic inflation.
“The second half of the 20th century saw the consensus settle in favour of granting central banks independence in monetary policy and also in their financial stability and regulatory policy roles,” Makhlouf said.
“In my view the evidence points to that conclusion being the correct one and has benefited societies and enhanced their welfare compared to the counterfactual. But … we need to be humble and recognise that changing circumstances may mean that a new consensus around the role of central banks is needed.”
While Makhlouf did not reference President Trump directly, the US leader has loudly criticised Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, for not cutting rates. Many commentators have said Trump’s tariff policies could cause inflation, forcing Powell to raise rates again.
Makhlouf said any change would require a clear mandate. “Expanding the central bank’s role too far risks diluting its focus,” he said. “Accountability needs a firm anchor.”