Business

Valeo Foods agrees Jacob Fruitfield purchase Valeo Foods has announced that it has reached agreement to acquire Jacob Fruitfield Food Group for an undisclosed amount. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. Set up 2010, Valeo is made up of a growing portfolio of Irish consumer brands, including Batchelors, Odlums, Shamrock, Sqeez, Roma, Erin, Amigo, Lustre and Picnic. The company also offers route-to-market services for several international consumer brands. Jacob Fruitfield includes Fruitfield Foods, which was bought from Nestl� in 2002, and Irish Biscuits, which was purchased from Groupe Danone in 2004. Among its consumer brands are Jacob’s biscuits (Fig Rolls, Kimberley, Mikado and Coconut Creams), Chef sauces, Fruitfield jams and marmalades and Silvermints and Scots…

Joint administrators of Quinn Insurance suing PwC The joint administrators of Quinn Insurance Ltd are suing the firm’s former auditors PwC for €1bn over alleged negligent auditing. Michael McAteer and Paul McCann of Grant Thornton were appointed joint administrators to Quinn Insurance in March 2010. PwC Ireland has consented today to the application of the joint administrators of Quinn Insurance Ltd (under administration) to admit legal proceedings to the Commercial Court. “These proceedings are unjustified and devoid of merit,” PwC said in a statement. “The affidavit, accompanying the application, contains factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations of the facts and assertions with which we fundamentally disagree. “The circumstances behind the proceedings are complex and technical and involve many interrelated parties, including…

Liberty Mutual has been named the preferred bidder for Quinn Insurance Limited with good news for Irish staff as they are told no job losses are imminent. The administrators for Quinn announced this morning that the proposal of the preferred bidder is that a new insurance company will be established.

JPMorgan Chase is to pay a record US$13bn settlement after admitting that it made “serious misrepresentations” to the public about numerous residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions. The US Justice Department said that as part of the settlement, JPMorgan acknowledges that it “regularly represented to RMBS investors that the mortgage loans in various securities complied with underwriting guidelines”.  It said that contrary to this, on a number of different occasions, JPMorgan employees knew that the loans in question did not comply with those guidelines and were not otherwise appropriate for securitization, but they allowed the loans to be securitized – and those securities to be sold – without disclosing this information…

Marine Harvest Ireland (MHI) has contracted Cill Chiaráin Éisc Teoranta to process €20m of fish from its Kilkieran Bay site in Connemara next year. MHI currently employs 15 staff on the site, which it has been operating since October 2013. The agreement will see €20m worth of its ‘Irish Organic Salmon Co’ product processed by Cill Chiaráin Éisc Teoranta between March and July 2015. Around 85pc of the processed product will be exported to 15 countries worldwide. “Marine Harvest Ireland looks to work with local partners and suppliers where at all possible and we utilise in excess of 600 local suppliers across the country,” said Pat Connors, sales and processing…

Dell wins data storage contract with QuintillionPictured: Charles Gillanders, Quintillion and Liam Halpin, general manager, Dell Ireland Dell has announced that it has been awarded a storage solution contract by hedge fund administration services provider Quintillion. Quintillion’s investment in Dell’s Compellent storage area network will allow multiple servers to be connected to a centralised pool of disk storage, allowing for improved system administration and easier data management. “Over the past six years Quintillion has continued to grow in size and stature,” said Charles Gillanders, Quintillion. “Throughout this time we have installed a number of new solutions based on our changing data needs but as the company grew so did our…

Photo courtesy of RDS/Facebook Hundreds of jobs will be on offer this weekend at Job Expo 2012, an employment and recruitment fair, which will take place in Dublin’s RDS on Saturday, 12 and Sunday, 13 May. According to the organisers, this event, which is free, will provide all the information needed to climb the employment ladder or make an informed decision on a new career choice both in Ireland and abroad. Career opportunities and advice will be available from companies located both in Ireland and abroad such as: JV Driver, the Canadian construction firm who have 200 openingsIrish HomeCare Services who have 200 job openingsCanadian Recruitment firm, Diamond Global have…

Kentz receives takeover offers from Amec and M&W GroupImage courtesy of www.kentz.com Engineering and construction company Kentz has confirmed it has received takeover offers from UK engineering firm Amec and M&W; Group in Germany. The board of directors has rejected the unsolicited takeover approaches, believing they undervalue the company. A global organisation employing 14.500 people across 30 countries, Kentz started life in 1919 in Clonmel, Co Tipperary as a local electrical contractor. According to a statement by the company today, Kentz has had a strong and consistent track record of revenue and earnings growth since its IPO in 2008. “The company has strong growth prospects given its substantial order backlog,…

Three in five participants in the national JobBridge scheme secure employment following their internship, according to an independent evaluation report published today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Social Protection Minister Joan Burton. Conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants, the evaluation indicates that 61pc of interns progress to paid employment after completing their internship. According to the Government, the progression rate for JobBridge is among the best in Europe, where rates for similar internship schemes average 34pc. The Details of The JobBridge Report The report also reveals that 96pc of host organizations would recommend JobBridge to another employer. Eighty-nine percent of interns said JobBridge had provided them with new skills which would…

Global medical device company CareFusion is to create 35 new jobs at its manufacturing facility in Gort, Co Galway, the company announced today. CareFusion, which has its headquarters in San Diego, employs over 15,000 people in more than 20 countries worldwide, including 90 in Ireland. The company was established in Ireland in 2006 with 12 employees. The Gort site is a manufacturing centre of excellence for diagnostic and monitoring medical equipment used in the diagnosis of human neurological, vascular and respiratory disorders, which are distributed to over 70 countries worldwide. Speaking in Gort today, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD said the announcement is further confirmation that Ireland remains a…