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Opening Bell: EU's single digital market, Greece's payment, EirGen sale

The EU will unveil its plans to make a single digital market within the Union later today. Over t...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.34 6 May 2015


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Opening Bell: EU's sin...

Opening Bell: EU's single digital market, Greece's payment, EirGen sale

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.34 6 May 2015


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The EU will unveil its plans to make a single digital market within the Union later today. Over the next two years it plans to make a single market for digital goods, services, capital, and content.

This could mean the end of 'geoblocking' - the restricting of certain content and online services to particular regions.

A statement from the commission reads, "Too many Europeans cannot use online services that are available in other EU countries, often without any justification; or they are re-routed to a local store with different prices. Such discrimination cannot exist in a Single Market."

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The new rules could also harmonise delivery prices to encourage e-commerce, and it could also affect how mobile and internet service providers operate.

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Waterford-based EirGen has been acquired by US company Opko for $135m - it produces drugs for cancer chemotherapy.

The company was started 10 years ago and employs 100 people, EirGen’s chief executive Patsy Carney said that the company needed to focus on the US market to go to the "next level."

Miami-based Opko, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is expected to expand EirGen’s operations in the South East, where there is a strong pipeline of generic drugs under development. Opko is paying $100m in cash and $35m in shares.

Close to 50 percent of EirGen is owned by a large Saudi pharmaceuticals group; minority shareholders include the two founder members, Brennan and Carney, and Enterprise Ireland.

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CRH has reported what it describes as a "satisfactory start to 2015" with sales from continuing operations increasing by 2.5 percent.

The company says that sales from continuing operations in the Americas increased by 8 percent - but the relative figure in Europe has declined by 2 percent.

CHR recently received clearance from European regulators which will allow its planned purchase of some €6.5bn of assets from rivals Lafarge and Holcim to go ahead.

This report covers four months, it expects earnings growth of nearly 10 percent in the first half of this year.

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Greece is due to repay €200m to the IMF today in the first of its two major repayments due in May - the second being a steeper €750m repayment due next week.

While talks continue in Brussels, they remain deadlocked - Greek officials say that the EU and IMF's proposals cross some of the Syriza government's 'red lines'.

Reports suggest that there is now a division between the EU and the IMF - with the IMF calling for greater leniency while Europe maintains its hardline-stance.

European Commission's Spring 2015 Economic Forecast was published yesterday and it downgraded its forecast for the Greek economy, it originally projected that its debt would fall from 176.2 percent of GDP to 170.2 percent this year - it now thinks that it will rise to 180.2 percent.

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Northern Ireland’s largest car retailer, the Charles Hurst Group has entered the used car market in the Republic with the opening of what it calls a used car supermarket on Dublin’s Nass Road.

The outlet, trading as UseDirect Ireland, will showcase up to 2,000 used vehicles at any one time, the majority of which will be imported from Britain and the North from the Charles Hurst and Lookers dealership networks

It’s a big expansion in the Republic for Charles Hurst and Usedirect, whose only current operation is the Dublin Audi Centre in Ballsbridge and according to Tom Magowan of UseDirect Ireland, there are plans for further expansion.

 

 

 


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