Hibernian chairman appointed

Insurance company Hibernian Group has appointed Donal Byrne as its chairman.

Mr Byrne has been on the board of Hibernian since 2000 and a was previously a director of Norwich Union, which merged with Hibernian in 2000.

David Simpson, a former managing partner of accountants BDO Simpson Xavier, and solicitor Walter Beatty have been appointed non-executive directors.

They replace Peter Malone and Sean Donlon on the board.

Healthcare group in talks for gym

London: One of Britain’s biggest private healthcare groups could make a surprise move to snap up Cannons gym chain, it was reported yesterday.

Nuffield Hospitals is understood to be in talks with Royal Bank of Scotland, which has owned the gym chain thought to be worth about £200 million (€287m) since 2001, according to the Sunday Times.

Nuffield is a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity.