Almost €50,000 was paid in expenses to four directors of the country’s science funding agency to attend board and committee meetings last year.

Global investors’ enthusiasm for European stocks continues to surge, the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of portfolio managers showed. The swing of funds into the region, and away from the US, was one of the largest since 1999.

A former Islamist has started a foundation to combat extremism among Muslims - and has made a lot of enemies in the process, writes Thomas Chatterton Williams

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has filed its shingles vaccine Shingrix for US regulatory approval, the drugmaker said yesterday, bringing the potential $1bn (€918m)-a-year seller a step closer to market.

Overseas buyers lured by a plunge in the pound are looking to snare British companies on the cheap, ensuring a steady flow of deals since Britain voted to leave the EU and defying expectations of an M&A drought.

The global dairy industry is being reshaped by a wave of dealmaking driven by low milk prices and growing demand for products like yoghurt and baby formula in Asia and the Middle East.

Facebook has reported a better-than-expected 51.7% jump in revenue for the final quarter of 2015 as new advertising formats and an improved mobile app drove a sharp rise in ad sales.

Dublin-based drugmaker Shire has clinched its six-month pursuit of Baxalta International with an agreed $32 billion (€29.4bn) cash and stock offer, catapulting it to a leading position in treating rare diseases.

Flagging demand dragged China’s giant factory sector into its sharpest contraction in six-and-a-half years in September, a private survey showed yesterday, triggering a flight to safety in Asian markets that analysts say could extend across the globe.

China is under growing pressure to further stimulate its economy after disappointing data over the weekend showed another heavy fall in factory-gate prices and a surprise slump in exports.

Apple’s disappointing earnings matter to more than just the investors who hold its shares.

Lloyds Bank is expected to set out its dividend plans next week, including a potential return of surplus cash to shareholders, making its stock more attractive ahead of a possible sale to retail investors, industry sources have said.

Securities houses are learning the hard way what it means to be a tool of the state. The largest brokerage houses in China were beneficiaries of the stock bubble.

Spain’s Inditex, owner of clothing retailer Zara, yesterday reported better-than-expected quarterly profits, as its global fast-fashion business model allowed it to keep pace with local economic and fashion trends.

The surging value of the US dollar may be posing the biggest threat to corporate earnings since the 2008 financial crisis, impacting results at most US-based multinationals. Some on Wall St are even talking about an earnings recession.

Apple’s quarterly results smashed Wall Street expectations with record sales of big-screen iPhones in the holiday shopping season and a 70% rise in China sales, powering the company to the largest profit in corporate history.

Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa has agreed to buy Telefonica’s British mobile unit O2 for up to £10.25bn (€13.7bn), as Asia’s richest man makes his boldest bet yet to revamp his European telecoms business.

A study conducted by Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science, called ‘The State of Innovation in the Automotive Industry’ has revealed what it describes as “a tremendous commitment from carmakers to new technology.”

Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank has hired JP Morgan to lead a share listing for Irish energy firm, Viridian Group, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, in a deal that one said could give the firm a value, including debt, of nearly £1bn (€1.25bn).

Diageo, the world’s largest distilled drinks maker by sales, posted weaker- than-expected earnings yesterday, hurt by a slowdown in China and volatility in other emerging markets.

Troubled insurer RSA may have to sell its best assets, leaving it concentrated in slow-growing markets such as its British home patch, to raise up to £1bn (€1.15bn) and safeguard its credit ratings.

Twitter soared as much as 92% in its first day of trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange as investors snapped up shares in the popular microblogging site in a frenzy that recalled the days of the dot-com bubble.

Growing merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and increasing investment suggest that firms are finally putting their massive cash piles to work, a trend which is likely to give equity markets another leg-up towards the end of the year.

The world’s biggest state- backed funds are joining the Great Rotation portfolio switch out of bonds into equities, a move that risks crowding the trade and lessening the allure.

If you are worried about the Western middle class — and we all should be — you may have started to have some doubts about the virtues of flexible labour markets.

THE announcement last week of a €50m Government and industry research investment for the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre of food and medicine underlines its growing status as a national centre for food and medicine research excellence.

Academics can be dismissive of the concerns of the popular media. But when it comes to the growth of the super-rich, the tabloids may have gotten it right.

Investors’ “fiscal cliff” worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week.

Allergan, the maker of anti-wrinkle treatment Botox, saw profits slightly lower in the third quarter.

Pre-tax profits at Dublin technology firm Corvil more than doubled last year to €2.4m.

Dublin-headquartered credit information firm Experian has narrowly beat profit forecasts, benefiting from strong growth in Latin America, and said it was on track to meet its targets in the current fiscal year.

Dairy Crest Group has lost its contract to supply milk to Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer, and the company said it was looking at closing two facilities, which will affect about 470 employees.

A Goldman Sachs banker has launched a withering attack on the bank in a newspaper column announcing his resignation, saying that some managing directors at the Wall Street firm had referred to their own clients as “muppets”.

GOOGLE Inc’s shares fell 10% in after-hours trading yesterday after the internet search giant missed Wall Street’s revenue targets, despite its revenue increasing about 25%.

Ireland will not require a second bailout to follow the €67.5bn package agreed with the EU and IMF in 2010, Enda Kenny said while on a visit to the UK today.