Growth at Aer Lingus Regional

Dublin: Last month saw Aer Lingus Regional — the airline’s secondary destination service, operated by Stobart Air (Aer Arann) — have up its 12th consecutive month of growth, with more than 130,000 passengers carried.

The service also saw growth across its main bases in Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Kerry.

Three wraps up O2 Ireland acquisition

Dublin: Three Ireland has completed the acquisition of O2 in Ireland, previously owned by Telefonica. According to Three CEO, Robert Finnegan: “This is a big day for the Irish telecoms market. We will now get down to the task of combining the strengths and talents of the two businesses to create a major force in the Irish mobile market, which will be good for competition, good for consumers and good for Ireland.”

Merrion, Hovione in strategic alliance

Dublin: Irish drug development company, Merrion Pharmaceuticals has entered a strategic partnership with Portuguese pharmaceutical, Hovione.

The deal will see the latter use the company’s patented Gipet absorption-enhancing technology in product development.

Merrion recently froze its own drug development programme and repositioned itself as a technology /intellectual property provider to other firms. Its Gipet technology — which is also used in a partnership with Danish pharma, Novo Nordisk — goes into the making of drugs delivered in tablet, capsule or injection form.

Supermodel teams up with sports firm

Cork: Women’s sports lifestyle brand Green Lamb has announced a partnership with British supermodel Jodie Kidd.

The collaboration sees the launch of a new ladies performance clothing collection, the ‘Green Lamb Jodie Kidd Performance Collection’ which will be available from major UK and Irish retailers in the spring of 2015.

Federation praises Harris appointment

Dublin: The Federation of International Banks in Ireland has welcomed the appointment of Simon Harris as Minister of State (in the Departments of An Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs) with special responsibility for the IFSC.

“The Federation has long pressed for the appointment of a minister to actively and consistently promote, at government level, the opportunities for Ireland as a location for international financial services,” the federation said.

Dragon Oil lives up to expectations

Dublin: Irish-listed Middle-Eastern exploration firm, Dragon Oil has maintained its production guidance for 2014, of between 87,000 and 90,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Dubai-headquartered firm — whose operational focus is the Middle East and northern Africa — saw average gross production increase from 75,800 barrels to 76,100 barrels, year-on-year, in June.