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Parent Category: Business and Finance

Category: Company News/Finances/Banks

Created: 19 May 2012

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Mark Zuckerberg

Want to know some facts about Mr Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg?

Well first off, he is a very private person and talking to the press is not something he does.

He was born in White Plains, New York in 1984. His father was a dentist and his mother a psychiatrist.

The soon to be billionaire began writing computer programmes when he was eleven years old and studied at the renowned Phillips Exeter Academy high school. Here Zuckerberg won numerous prizes in subjects such as mathematics, physics, astomony as well as classical studies.

It is claimed he can write and speak fluently French, Latin, Hebrew and ancient Greek.

It was while he attended Exeter that his father began teaching him Atari Basic programming. Some time later a software developer, David Newman was hired to tutor him privately.

As if that wasn’t enough on his plate, Zuckerberg also undertook a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while still at high school.

In 2002 he went to Harvard University and it was while he was there that he co-launched ‘thefacebook.com’ in 2004 with classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin.

Two years on, he dropped out of Harvard to head for Silicon Valley.

Zuckerberg’s first financial backing came from PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, to the tune of $500,000. One year later venture capital company, Accel Partners backed him with $13 million.

Fast forward to to-day and our shy Mr Zuckerberg is the single largest shareholder in Facebook with over 28 per cent of common stock and just under 57 per cent of the voting rights.

With an estimated 900 million members, his wealth is now estimated at $17 billion, give or take a couple of million dollars.

One other point of interest about this young man from White Plains is that he is a philanthropist. In 2010 he signed a pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett where each man promised to donate over half their wealth to charity during the course of their lives.

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Parent Category: Business and Finance

Category: Company News/Finances/Banks

Created: 11 May 2012

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Balmoral International Land Holdings plc, headed by the McCann fruit importer family, has finalised a deal with PayPal Europe Services Ltd, the global online payments company to lease its 13,450sqm technology building at the Xerox Technology Campus, in Dundalk, Co Louth.

PayPal, which is owned by eBay, recently stated that it planned to establish a new European operations centre in Dundalk, with the assistance of IDA Ireland. The news was heralded at the time as a significant economic boost for the north-eastern region of the country as the project is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.

PayPal announced also that it intends to spend several million euro on expanding and fitting out the premises upon occupation.

The building within the Xerox Technology Park in Dundalk is situated close to the local Institute of Technology at the entrance to Dundalk. Access to the M1 Motorway is easy and the complex is less than 45 minutes from Dublin International Airport.

Balmoral Chairman, Carl McCann, is quoted as saying:

"We are very pleased that it was the availability of a facility of the size and quality of our premises that helped to persuade the company to locate this major investment in Dundalk. The creation of 1,000 new jobs will have an enormous impact on the town."

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Category: Company News/Finances/Banks

Created: 04 May 2012

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Permanent TSB’s reinvention as a good bank seems possible after the virtually nationalised bank said its plan has been approved by the troika.

permanentTSBThe idea centres on carving out a good bank and parking €12.5 billion of doubtful loans in an internal bad bank, which would leave €14.2 billion in a “good” Permanent TSB.

So are we on the verge of seeing the re-emergence of a third national bank, as the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan recently put it?

In 2002 it had €14 billion of loans and deposits of €10 billion - a loans-to-deposits ratio of 140 per cent.

Now under the new EU-IMF targets it has to reach a target of 122.5 per cent.

And the question is: will this new plan achieve this ratio?

The new boss of Permanent TSB, Jeremy Masding, seems to think so. He has secured approval for the plan where Anglo Irish Bank (now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation) could not.

This had more to do with the types of banks they are, however. Permanent TSB had a national reach while Anglo was a specialist lender primarily to property developers and builders.

So Permanent TSB is likely to rise from the ashes. But is it fair for it to be allowed to simply jettison €12.5 billion of their own potential debt?

Once again the banks seem to get the deal while the man on the street and small businesses get crumbs – and credit facilities are rare.

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Parent Category: Business and Finance

Category: Company News/Finances/Banks

Created: 20 April 2012

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Recent reports suggest that a significant rise in share values at three well-known Irish companies has made small fortunes for some of their key executives contrary to the economic trend here. Other beneficiaries include a number of farmers, small businessmen and pensioners.

Lucky investors in bookmakers Paddy Power and food company Glanbia have seen the value of their shares defy the global economic turmoil and rise to unbelievable levels. Even those with shares in Ryanair have watched the share price climb steadily although not as much as Paddy Power and Glanbia.

This jump in share prices has made paper millions for those who had the courage to stick with their investment, despite the depths of recession.

In the case of Paddy Power, the share price has jumped by nearly 270 per cent since the end of 2008. Glanbia share price, which has benefited from the boom in the agriculture sector, has risen more than 200 per cent in four years.

At the end of 2011, Ryanair announced half-year profits of €543.5m. While most of the shareholders are directors and executives, the sharp rise in all three companies share price has also made outside investors significant paper profits.

When the global economic crisis hit in 2008, all of the above named companies suffered significant share-price falls. However, these companies have now shown very strong recoveries since then for a variety of reasons.

Paddy Power decided to further develop its online betting and gaming offering and also broke into new markets around the world. Glanbia, due to the boom in the agriculture sector launched profitable new products. And Ryanair's continued ‘no-frills’ approach has meant that it has been able to remain profitable despite rising fuel prices and a weak economic environment.

And who are those individuals sitting on millions?

The shares of David Power, the bookmaker, were worth €145m at the end of March. Former managing director Pat O'Neill of Glanbia, and his wife Rosanna, had a combined €3m worth of shares, again at the end of March. There were also 140 named shareholders on Glanbia's register with an average of €100,000 worth of shares, including five paper millionaires.

And just look at Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary's 51 million shares in the airline. These are now worth a staggering €220m, a 70 per cent rise since 2008.

So while there is plenty of ‘doom and gloom’ out there, this still hasn’t stopped Paddy Power, Glanbia and Ryanair from prospering, with the added bonus of their share prices rising in line with their success.

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