Expansion costs at the Irish arm of health food retailer Holland & Barrett last year resulted in pre-tax profits falling by 19.5% to €6m.

Carlyle Cardinal Ireland has made what is believed to be its biggest ever investment, in Abtran — a major employer in Cork and Dublin.

High-profile oil and gas executives are teaming up with private equity funds seeking to invest billions in British North Sea assets and maximise profits by cutting costs, offering the ageing basin a badly needed lifeline.

A private equity-backed management buyout of Carroll Cuisine believed to value the company in the region of €40m, has been completed.

Conversations at Davos typically focus on the thousands of wealthy and powerful folk who trek to the Alps every January for the World Economic Forum.

DBRS, the world’s fourth-largest credit rating company, has agreed to be acquired by the Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus for about $500m (€409m).

An Irish private equity fund aimed at investing in small and medium enterprises closed yesterday having raised €290m.

Carlyle Group, the world’s second-largest manager of investment alternatives to stocks and bonds, said fourth-quarter profit more than tripled as the value of its fund holdings increased and the firm sold assets at a profit.

David M Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group LP, has paid $14.2m (€10.45m) at Sotheby’s in New York yesterday for The Bay Psalm Book, the highest price for a printed book at auction.

The largest private equity firm in the world, the Carlyle Group, is looking for investment opportunities in Ireland, according to its founder and co-chief executive, William Conway.

The Government, via the National Pension Reserve Fund, is making available €850m to small businesses through three new funds in an effort to fill the gap in the market by banks exiting the country.

Initial public offerings have fallen 34% this year, with many firms fearing a repeat of the social network’s flop debut, writes Lee Spears

Global food and dairy companies are making another round of big bets on China’s fast growing dairy sector, seeking to position themselves as safe alternatives after a lethal baby formula scandal burned the industry four years ago.

EUROPEAN leaders must work fast to overcome the current crisis or else new models of capitalism — such as that of China — may win the day, warns one leading American financial services figure.

A division of BAE Systems which makes cockpit displays for fighter jets and digital engine controls for commercial aircraft has been taken off the market after its owner failed to agree a sale.

WL Ross & Co chief executive Wilbur Ross said his investor group remains in the bidding for the EBS, even as it is in talks with the Government about new capital targets for the country’s fifth-largest lender.

BANKING analyst Ken Darmody yesterday welcomed the fact that private equity holders were still interested in getting involved in the Irish banking sector.

Dublin: Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) and a consortium of private equity investors, led by Dublin-based house Cardinal Capital, have been confirmed as the final two bidders who will battle it out for control of the EBS Building Society, which is currently under state control.

IRISH Life & Permanent, the country’s biggest life assurer and mortgage lender, is in talks to hire four banks, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, to underwrite a rights offering, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

IRISH Life & Permanent is still seen as the lead contender to buy EBS despite strong interest by three international consortia.

HOMEOWNERS could see thousands slashed off their mortgages if a bid for EBS from a US billionaire is successful.

JC FLOWERS & Co and three other bidders for Ireland’s EBS Building Society may buy and merge several lenders to create a new competitor to the country’s biggest banks, two people familiar with the situation said.

EBS Building Society, the country’s biggest customer-owned lender, set an August 9 deadline for a second round of takeover bids, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The FTSE 100 Index finished a sluggish week on a bright note today after better-than-expected US retail figures eased concerns over the world’s biggest economy.

THE outlook for Anglo Irish Bank’s surviving as a standalone entity deteriorated further yesterday as its shares plunged about 28% for the second day in a row.

THE decision by the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) to put forward a bank recapitalisation programme will give the private equity players stalking the banks food for thought as they scramble to secure significant holdings in some of the country’s troubled institutions.

THE uncertainty over the future make-up of the Irish banking sector could well carry on for weeks, according to sources, despite feeling that the Government will add pressure this week on the main banks to close consolidation deals.

JUST as supermodel Linda Evengelista said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day, one of the fashion world’s most popular designers said he won’t consider sitting around the negotiating table for less than €1.4 billion.

US stocks tumbled today as the ailing credit market and a spike in home foreclosures intensified the market’s worries about a sagging economy. The Dow Jones industrials gave up 214 points.

SHARES in CRH surged as much as 5% yesterday as speculation mounted that the building materials giant could be a takeover target.

TONY O’REILLY has failed for a fourth time in his bid to take Australian media company APN News and Media private in a move which would have delivered a 375 million boost for Independent News and Media Plc’s (IN&M) coffers.

Aer Lingus has appointed Thomas Corcoran, senior adviser for US buyout firm Carlyle Group, to the company’s board of directors.

APN News & Media has said that its independent directors have yet to reach a conclusion over the Aus$2.4 billion (€1.42bn) takeover offer from an investment group headed by Independent News & Media.

INDEPENDENT News & Media’s proposed buy-out of its Australian subsidiary company APN will be partly financed by the Carlyle Group, the US private equity house.

Australian media conglomerate APN News & Media Ltd said today it had received a renewed takeover bid from a buyout consortium led by Irish billionaire Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media.

The rights to TV quiz show Who Wants To Be Millionaire? were sold today as part of a £106m (€156m) deal.

Stocks fell on Wall Street today in thin trading, ending a shortened week quietly as the holiday shopping season began and attention turned to retailers and a steep decline in the dollar against other major currencies.

Stocks fell on Wall Street today in thin trading, ending a shortened week quietly as the holiday shopping season began and attention turned to retailers and a steep decline in the dollar against other major currencies.

A break-up of Cadbury Schweppes was touted in the City today after the company secured greater control over the distribution of drinks such as 7 Up in the United States.

Car safety seats-to-pushchairs firm Britax Childcare broke free from its parent company today after being sold in a deal worth £230m (€339m).

The private equity arms of Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan have agreed for Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee to join the Waren Acquisition consortium in their bid to buy pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott for £1.62bn (€2.34bn).

POLICE fired rubber bullets yesterday against hundreds of anti-war protesters blocking a road near Oakland’s port in California, witnesses and officials said.