Practice News Archives - Devine Accountants

An Post, Kerry Group and Bord Bia have topped the Ireland RepTrak 2017 study of the most highly regarded organisations in Ireland.

Aldi, Lidl, Google, Boots, Tourism Ireland, Aer Lingus, and Super Valu make up the remaining top ten positions.

The results are based on the perceptions of more than 4,500 respondents who completed The Reputations Agency survey in the first three months of 2017.

The survey quantifies the emotional bond stakeholders have with 50 leading companies, and how these connections drive supportive behaviour such as a willingness to purchase a company’s products, recommend the brand, invest, welcome into their community or even work for the company.
Companies that were worst regarded were Irish Water, Bank of Ireland, and AIB.

Overall, the public feel more positive about firms this year than last year, when 27pc of firms’ reputations significantly declined.
When looking at industry reputations, the food & beverage sector remains the most highly regarded, while the financial services sector is the weakest with an 18-point difference in reputation scores across sectors.

The research shows that reputation substantially drives business results by increasing the propensity to buy, recommend, trust, invest, work for, or welcome companies into the community.

“From this year’s study, we can see that consumers in Ireland are ten times more likely to purchase a product or service from a company and seven times more likely to work for a company with an excellent reputation than a company with a poor reputation,” Niamh Boyle, managing director, at The Reputations Agency said.
Companies were ranked on a reputation pulse score from 0-100 based on levels of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling towards the companies, and were grouped as excellent (80+), strong (70-79), average (60-69), weak (40-59) or poor (below 40).

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

The new facility, which is the first of its kind in North America, will offer device designers and manufacturers a fully equipped design and testing location.

The San Diego location is an antenna and radio frequency design centre, dedicated to the IoT market.

The company was set up by Wexford man, Dermot O’Shea and Dubliner Ronan Quinlan in 2004. It currently employs 37 in Wexford and some 130 worldwide.

The firm also has locations in Taiwan and Germany. Taoglas also expects to expand further in Ireland.

Speaking about the launch of its new centre, Ronan Quinlan, the firm’s co-CEO, said that the new facility is off the back on continued re-investment.

“Our enlarged San Diego facility reflects our growth rate last year of almost 100pc. We work hard to support our customers worldwide who, not only need the off-the-shelf or custom antennas we offer, but also need design services and assistance.

“In Wexford, Taoglas’ headquarters houses research and development (R&D), finance, marketing and product management for Taoglas globally. It also has customer service, sales and engineering support for European customers,” Mr Quinlan said.

Commenting on the investment by a globally-recognised Irish company, Philip Grant, consul general of Ireland to the Western United States, said: “The expansion of an Irish company in the North American market is a great example of how Irish technology and business ingenuity can contribute to local economies. Taoglas has been servicing this region from San Diego for only five years so such growth is quite impressive.”

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

World stocks were set for a third straight week of losses on Friday and commodity currencies took another drubbing as oil prices fell back below $30, keeping alive concerns about global growth.

European stocks fell more than 1 per cent, heading back towards Thursday’s 13-month lows, while Asian shares skidded to 3-1/2 year lows.

Oil prices, which posted their first significant gains for 2016 on Thursday, came under fresh selling pressure as the prospect of additional Iranian supply loomed over the market.

Brent crude fell 3 per cent to $29.86, heading for a weekly loss of more than 10 percent. US crude fared even worse, sliding almost 5 per cent to $29.75, and was set for a weekly decline of 10 per cent.

The collapse in oil prices has spooked financial markets as investors worry about the health of the global economy, with a slowdown in China and volatility in its markets making for a nervous start to the year.

“It’s been another immensely volatile week,” said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec in London.

The Shanghai Composite lost 3.5 per cent, while the CSI300 tumbled 3.2 per cent. That put the former on track for a 9 per cent loss for the week, and the latter for a decline of 7.2 per cent.

Chinese shares extended their losses after data showed new yuan loans in December were well below the previous month’s lending, and broad M2 money supply growth also slowed, with both missing expectations.

China will publish a host of data on Monday and Tuesday, including fourth quarter gross domestic product.

US retail sales data due later on Friday will also be on investors’ radar as they try to gauge the likelihood of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates again in March.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

NAMA and the Central Bank are to co-fund the development of a commercial property statistical system to provide a comprehensive database on what’s going on in the sector. Read more

Energy companies have been urged to cut their prices to reflect the collapse in wholesale costs. Read more

The new year could be one of the best years in a long time for your finances. The economy appears to be picking up – and the tax cuts announced in the latest Budget will soon be flowing into your pay packet. Read more

The State could eventually recoup all the cash used to bail out AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said.

This would leave the €35 billion cost of bailing out Anglo and Irish Nationwide as the final cash cost to the exchequer from the banking collapse.

The Department of Finance has now appointed Goldman Sachs to advise on its options in relation to AIB, the Minister said in an opinion article in The Irish Times.

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The euro wallowed near a nine-year low as speculation grew that the European Central Bank will embark on quantitative easing soon and US jobs data will be good enough to cement the case for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank’s governing council stands ready to take unconventional measures to stem prolonged low inflation, fuelling expectations of a policy move at the bank’s meeting on January 22nd.

The euro stood at $1.1806, near a nine-year low of $1.1754 reached on Thursday and close to $1.1747, the level at which it began trading in January 1999. Numbers released on Friday by the euro zone’s two biggest economies, France and Germany, only darkened the outlook for the 18-nation currency bloc.

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In its review of 2014, the Dublin exchange said transactions in the equity market rose to 4.5m trades for the year, with the ISEQ Overall Index delivering a 15pc gain during the year.

That compares with equity transaction growth of 42pc in 2013 and an ISEQ performance gain of 34pc.

Deirdre Somers, ISE chief executive, said 2014 was a landmark year for the Irish Stock Exchange.

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The value of the State’s holding in AIB rose by €1.7 billion in 2014, according to the latest valuation carried out for the National Treasury Management Agency. This has emerged from the NTMA’s review for last year. The State’s holding in AIB and Bank of Ireland is managed by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which has taken over the role of the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

The valuation was carried out by EY, the auditors to Anglo Irish Bank at the time of its collapse and nationalisation in 2008-09. This values the State’s ordinary and preference shares in AIB.

At the end of 2014, the AIB holding was valued at €11.7 billion while the State’s 14 per cent stake in Bank of Ireland, which has a main market listing on the Irish Stock Exchange, was worth €1.4 billion. The State also holds €1.6 billion worth of contingent capital notes in AIB, also known as CoCos.

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