Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) is set to spend more than €400m this year on organic investments and acquisitions, with €177m already spent in the first half.

US private equity house Madison Dearborn Partners has reached initial agreement to buy Irish-founded packaging company Powerflute less than a year after failing at the first attempt.

Shares in Irish packaging company Smurfit Kappa fell by more than 3% yesterday despite a significant uptick in profitability in the opening six months of the year.

Shares in paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa jumped more than 3% in early trading yesterday on the back of it posting a 31% increase in quarterly profits and forecasting strong earnings growth for the full year.

Executive pay levels at Smurfit Kappa Group declined by nearly 39% last year, amid a shake-up of the group’s management.

Shares in Irish-founded packaging company, Powerflute jumped by nearly 2% at one point yesterday following an indicative takeover approach from US private equity house, Madison Dearborn Partners.

Tiger Woods could be set to make his return to The K Club for next year’s Irish Open — 10 years after the USA’s crushing Ryder Cup defeat and Darren Clarke’s tears of joy.

The Irish economy has taken a massive hammering over the past few years, but it will make a strong recovery, said Michael Smurfit.

The packaging and paper group chaired by Dermot Smurfit, Powerflute, reported a 140% jump in pre-tax profits to €5.2m.

Actress Victoria Smurfit has recalled how she came within inches of death when a gunman opened fire on a taxi she was travelling in while holidaying in South Africa.

Charity organisers tell Sharon Ní Conchúir about running events in the recession

The failure by the K Club to write down the value of its assets has resulted in its auditors issuing an adverse opinion on the company’s latest accounts.

Celebrities are decluttering theirhomes to help Cork’s biggest spring clean fundraiser.

Smurfit Kappa this week announced a big jump in its pre-tax profits.

British property investment firm Development Securities has formally announced its intention to acquire assets from Nama believed to be developer Gerry Gannon’s property portfolio in Britain.

ROY KEANE is donning his rubber gloves and duster to back a clean up for charity.

SOME of Ireland’s best-known socialites are rolling up their sleeves to spring clean their homes for a massive charity jumble sale.

SCIENTISTS at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have made a major discovery about how cancer cells self-destruct in a development which could lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with the disease.

LIKE a bride on the eve of her nuptials, Adare Manor was last night eager with anticipation, bursting to lay bare her best assets, and arranging and re-arranging her finery for a glorious unveiling today.

PRIVATE studs connected to key personnel at the Irish National Stud (INS) spent €235,199 over nine years to avail of the breeding facilities at the semi-state farm.

A PRINCE is expected to visit a Cork school next year which his mother, the late Princess Grace of Monaco, helped nearly 50 years ago.

Tony Smurfit has sold his 21% shareholding in Goffs the Aga Khan and Moyglare Stud Farm.

MULTIMILLIONAIRE paper tycoon Dermot Smurfit is threatening to leave Britain if its government presses ahead with its plans to levy non-domiciled residents £30,000 (€40,000).

A criminal gang aborted a plot to kidnap businesswoman Norma Smurfit because they ’felt sorry’ for her, a new book has claimed.

Paper and packaging maker Smurfit Kappa Group confirmed yesterday that it is to return to the stock market this year.

CHARLES HAUGHEY misappropriated at least £45,000 from funds raised to cover the late Brian Lenihan’s medical expenses and may, in fact, have taken as much as £194,000.

ONE of the heirs to the Smurfit fortune has died after being found on fire in a London churchyard

The murky financial dealings of former Taoiseach Charles J Haughey have long fuelled the political rumour mill and led to the setting up of two state tribunals.

PAPER and packaging tycoon Michael Smurfit has stepped down as a director of the struggling CNG Travel Group.

GAMEACCOUNT, an online gambling company backed by the Smurfit family, is set to float on the London stock market.

BALLYMORE Properties yesterday announced the appointment of Dr Michael Smurfit as a non-executive director of the Company.

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-East Correspondent

CHANGE this decision or face the consequences.

IRISH broadcaster Terry Wogan said yesterday he was “surprised and delighted” to be awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

Brian O’Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

Brian O'Mahony, Chief Business Correspondent

Irish travel group CNG has announced that Dr Micheal Smurfit and Mr Ralph Manaker are joining the board of the company as non-executive directors, with immediate effect.

FORMER Jefferson Smurfit chief executive Michael Smurfit is to invest €4 million in the Kenmare-based CNG Travel Group, which will float on London's Alternative Investment Market next month.

The news that Jack Nicklaus is set to design his second course in Ireland — on the grounds of the Killeen Castle in Co Meath — has renewed the debate on just how many more new multi-million euro complexes this country can take.

THE news that Jack Nicklaus is set to design his second course in Ireland — on the grounds of Killeen Castle in County Meath — has renewed the debate on just how many more new multi-million euro complexes this country can take.

IT'S a long way from Ballykissangel to Tanzania, but that's where actress Victoria Smurfit will be spending the start of the new year.