Welcome to the Business Post’s Live News section. Catch up here on today’s developments in business, tech and current affairs.
13.38 – Novo Nordisk shares rise as Biden proposes obesity care coverage
Shares of Danish weight-loss drug maker Novo Nordisk rose 1.3 per cent on Tuesday as US president Joe Biden proposed expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs for millions on Medicare and Medicaid.
“This is an important step forward for patients,” Novo Nordisk said in a statement commenting on the proposal, adding that the coverage could become effective in 2026.
Current rules for the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs cover the use of drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy for certain conditions like diabetes, but not for obesity as a condition on its own.
13.22 – Malin shares up after Roche acquires Poseida
Liam Daniel, chair of Malin Corporation.
Poseida Therapeutics, a portfolio company of Irish state-backed life sciences investment firm Malin Corporation, has agreed to be acquired by Swiss healthcare giant Roche Holding in a deal worth around $1.5 billion (€1.42 billion).
Shares in Malin, which owns around 12 per cent of the issued share capital of Poseida, were up nearly 40 per cent Tuesday morning since previous close following the announcement.
12.30 – Irish workers among most honest in the world
Irish workers are among the strictest in the world when it comes to the likes of nepotism and fake sick days, a new survey has suggested.
Research by the Institute of Business Ethics has found that workers in Ireland were less likely to find questionable workplace actions acceptable compared to the global average.
12.15 – ‘Incompetent’ UK financial regulator in firing line again
The UK’s financial services watchdog has been forced to defend itself yet again, after a scathing report by UK parliamentarians branded it “incompetent”.
An all-party Westminster group is set to report on the “integrity” of the FCA, having found major flaws across the organisation and its handling of complaints.
Read more from our UK correspondent Dominic McGrath.
12.00 – US Ireland’s leading export market at €54 billion
The US is Ireland’s leading export market, valued at €54 billion, new figures show.
According to data from the CSO, the US accounted for 28 per cent of Ireland’s exports last year – highlighting the state’s vulnerability to president-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist agenda.
Photo by
Andrew Harnik
11.45 – Intel Secures €7.5 Billion US Chips Award for Advanced Factories
The Biden administration has finalised a deal to give Intel nearly $7.9 billion (€7.5 billion) in federal grants, the largest direct subsidy from a program to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
The agreement for the struggling chipmaker, smaller than an earlier proposed award, means Intel can begin receiving funds as it hits negotiated benchmarks on projects in four US states.
The company will qualify for at least $1 billion this year, a senior administration official said, based on milestones it has already reached.
11.30 – Walmart to roll back diversity policies amid pressure from conservatives
Walmart plans to cut back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a spokesperson for the retailer said on Monday, joining a growing list of firms feeling the heat from conservative groups.
Bloomberg News reported that Walmart will no longer consider race and gender to boost diversity when granting supplier contracts and that eligibility for financing will not be assessed based on suppliers providing certain demographic data.
The retailer will scale back racial equity training, stop participating in rankings by an LGBTQ advocacy group and review its support for Pride and other events, the report added.
11.15 – ECB’s Centeno warns of risk of below-target inflation
Photo by
Yavuz Meyveci
European Central Bank policymaker Mario Centeno warned today that the euro zone must be watchful to avoid inflation returning to levels well below the ECB’s 2 per cent target amid piling economic risks such as likely new US trade tariffs.
Mario Centeno told a conference the European economy is practically stagnant and “risks are accumulating downwards”, namely geopolitical risks, while the tariffs that the US wants to impose on its trading partners “are not good news for Europe”.
He said that “monetary policy in Europe has had significant success in bringing the inflation rate to 2 per cent” – the ECB’s medium-term target.
11.00 – Irish Ferries operator revenues climb 6 per cent
Group revenues for the first ten months of 2024 at Irish Continental Group (ICG), the Irish Ferries operator, were up 6 per cent on the same period in 2023.
According to a trading update, the group took in €521 million in total revenue between January and the end of October, compared to €491 million the year before.
ICG, led by chief executive Eamonn Rothwell, carried 657,000 cars year to date – an 11 per cent jump on the 592,100 carried in the same period in 2023.
10.45 – Nissan seeks anchor investor to help it through make-or-break 12 months
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SOPA Images
Nissan is searching for an anchor investor to help it survive a make-or-break year as longtime partner Renault sells down its holding in the crisis-hit Japanese carmaker.
Two people with knowledge of the talks said Nissan was seeking a long-term, steady shareholder such as a bank or insurance group to replace some of Renault’s equity holding, as Nissan finalises the terms of its new electric vehicle partnership with arch-rival Honda.
“We have 12 or 14 months to survive,” said a senior official close to Nissan.
Read more on the Financial Times.
10.30 – Social media firms express concern at Australian under-16 ban
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bigtunaonline
Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, have urged the Australian government to delay a bill that will ban most forms of social media for children under 16, saying more time was needed to assess its potential impact.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left government wants to pass the bill, which represents some of the toughest controls on children’s social media use imposed by any country, into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday.
The bill was introduced in parliament last week and opened for submissions of opinions for only one day.
10.15 – Qualcomm’s takeover interest in Intel is said to cool
Qualcomm’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel has cooled, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time.
The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It’s always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added.
An Intel takeover would have ranked among the largest acquisitions in history, based on its current market value
10.00 – Housing bodies to assess removal of their borrowings from State balance sheet
Photo by
Maria Fernandez
The Republic’s main approved housing bodies (AHB) are weighing a fresh bid to have their borrowings removed from the State’s balance sheet, as they seek to ease constraints on future financing and growth.
The wider AHB sector, the most active bulk buyers of homes in the State, seek to rent to people who cannot pay private-sector rates or buy their own home. It had €7 billion of borrowings at the end of last year on €8.3 billion of housing stock, according to the AHB Regulatory Authority’s latest annual report, published last week.
It either owned or managed more than 61,000 dwellings as of last December, compared with fewer than 37,000 four years earlier.
09.45 – Telegram finances propped up by crypto gains
Pavel Durov, chief executive of Telegram
Photo by
Manuel Blondeau – Corbis
Telegram has told investors that the detainment of chief executive Pavel Durov by French police has had no “material impact” on the messaging app’s operations, as financial disclosures showed that the surging value of its crypto holdings is increasingly underpinning its business.
According to unaudited financial statements seen by the Financial Times, which have not been previously reported, Telegram reported huge gains in the value of its digital assets in the first half of 2024, which rose to $1.3 billion (€1.24 billion) compared with nearly $400 million (€380 million) at the end of last year.
Read the full article on the Financial Times.
09.30 – McDonald’s Grafton St owner swings back to €4 mn profit after slashing director payouts
Photo by
Post Reporter
The owner of the McDonald’s outlet on Dublin’s Grafton Street returned to profit last year after slashing directors’ emoluments, new documents show.
According to filings with the Companies Registration Office (CRO), Persian Restaurants Ltd – the operator of 12 McDonald’s restaurants in Ireland, including its first ever Irish outlet on Grafton Street – swung from a €220,110 loss in 2022 to €4.1 million profits last year.
The company, owned in its entirety by Amir Afsar, cut its €5.6 million payout to directors in 2022 by over 90 per cent to €531,557 last year, its latest financial accounts show.
Eoin O’Hare has the full report.
09.15 – Pretax profits drop at Clanwilliam Group
Irish health technology company Clanwilliam Group saw pretax profit fall as a rise in financing costs increased its expenses.
But revenue rose and operating profit was higher in the 12 months to the end of December 2023, as the company continued to grow its business. Revenue reached €96 million for the year, up €6 million from the previous 12-month period, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose €2 million to €33 million. Operating profit was €27 million, up from €24 million in 2022.
Read the full report on the Irish Times.
09.00 – Google proposes fresh tweaks to search results in Europe
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NurPhoto
Google has proposed more changes to its search results in Europe after some smaller rivals complained about lower traffic to their sites resulting from previous tweaks by the Alphabet unit.
It also comes as EU antitrust regulators consider levying charges against the company under new EU tech rules.
Under the Digital Markets Act, Google is prohibited from favouring its products and services on its platform. The Act kicked in last year and is aimed at reining in the power of Big Tech.
08.45 – Black Friday set to be busiest day for online spend by Irish shoppers – AIB
Black Friday 2023 broke all records for online spend by AIB customers, with almost 1 million transactions and approximately €105 million spend in 24 hours, up 11 per cent on the previous year.
The AIB Spend Trend report predicts a continuation of these strong online spending patterns among Irish shoppers this Black Friday.
According to the report, in 2023, €4.3 million was spent every hour, €73,000 every minute or €1,200 every second. The busiest hours for spend between 10 am and 11 am, with over 57,000 transactions in that hour.
08.30 – UK and European markets
Across the Irish Sea, the FTSE 100 is experiencing similar trends, with the index falling 0.31 per cent (-25.60) to 8,266.08.
Looking to Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 and the Dax Composite Index were both in the red, falling 0.64 and 0.68 per cent respectively.
Shares in European auto-makers fell at market open, as traders reacted to President-elect Donald Trump pledging tariffs in Canada, Mexico and China, news that fuelled worries over a potential global trade war.
08.15 – Irish market update
The Iseq All Share opened in the green on Tuesday, the Irish market was up 0.23 per cent (+21.66) to 9,635.63.
The main risers on the market were Irish Continental Group (+3.69 per cent), Ryanair (+2 per cent) and Greencoat Renewables (+2 per cent).
Meanwhile, the bottom performers were Corre Energy (-8.33 per cent) and AIB Group (-2.8 per cent).
08.00 – PrepayPower owner’s sales up 23 per cent last year on price rises and more customers
PrepayPower’s parent company, Yuno, posted a 23 per cent increase in sales last year as it passed on wholesale energy price increases to households and entered the pay-as-you-go market with a new brand, Yuno Energy.
Turnover reached €376.1 million for the year. At the end of 2023, Yuno was supplying 192,222 homes with energy, up 9.5 per cent on the year and driven by the launch of Yuno Energy in the second half of the reporting period
Read the full article on the Irish Times.
07.45 – Irish investors accelerating investment in energy transition
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Blue Planet Studio
More than eight out of ever ten Irish investors believe investment in energy transition assets is increasing rapidly, according to new research from KPMG.
That compares to 72 per cent globally the survey of 1400 senior executives from around the world, including 50 from Ireland, carried out by KPMG’s Energy Transition Investment Outlook Report found.
07.30 – Asian markets update
Several markets in Asia have moved lower overnight, including Japan’s Nikkei which fell 1.54 per cent, the KOSPI also dropped 0.63 per cent, and the S&P/ASX 200 is similarly trading down at 0.69 per cent.
That said, the main Chinese indices have recovered their initial losses from the open, with the CSI 300 and the Shanghai Composite Index both up this morning. The former increased marginally bt 0.30 per cent while the latter grew 0.36 per cent.
07.15 – Trump roils markets with tariff threat
Photo: The Washington Post
President-elect Donald Trump vowed additional tariffs on China as well as US neighbors Canada and Mexico, roiling markets with his first specific threat to curb global trade flows since his election win.
Trump said he would impose additional 10 per cent tariffs on goods from China and 25 per cent tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada in posts to his Truth Social network on Monday. The Canadian dollar fell to a four-year low on the news, while the peso traded close to its weakest since 2022. China’s yuan edged lower offshore.
Trump cast the new levies as necessary to clamp down on migrants and illegal drugs flowing across borders. He accused China of failing to follow through on promises to institute the death penalty for traffickers of fentanyl, writing that “drugs are pouring into our country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before.”
07.00 – Good morning
Emma Hanrahan here with you today to keep you up-to-date with all the latest news.
Leading the Business Post website this morning is Workhuman, a company that operates employee reward and incentive schemes on behalf of some of the world’s biggest companies, which hit $1.15 billion in revenue as AI investment plans take centre stage for 2025. Read the full article by Charlie Taylor here.
Elsewhere, Elaine Burke puts the parties’ tech manifestos to the test ahead of voting on Friday. Read more here.
