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ISEQ falls as Merkel dashes Irish hopes

Friday, October 19 17:38:16

The ISEQ closed the week sharply down after comments from Angela Merkel appeared to dash hopes that Ireland can squeeze a deal out of the EU on our crippling bank debt.

The index fell 22.45 points to 3,240.24.

The Government scrambled today to play down comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel that banks could not be retrospectively recapitalised via the euro zone's bailout fund, saying she was referring to Spanish lenders.

Merkel raised the new hurdle after a two-day EU summit, appearing to dash hopes in Dublin and Madrid that they could remove some of the cost of past bank rescues that have pushed up already strained national debts.

After Euro zone leaders agreed in June to allow its rescue funds recapitalise banks, Ireland, whose bank rescue cost the equivalent of 40 percent of annual economic output, said it would be able to benefit from the new rules retrospectively as part of ongoing talks to improve the terms of its bank bailout.

"The meeting of the European Council of today and yesterday reaffirmed the commitments made in the euro summit statement of June 29... to enhance Ireland's debt sustainability, and also agree to break the link between bank and sovereign debt. Those commitments stand," a government spokesman said in a statement.

Paddy Power's shares fell 48c to E57.12. William Hill has released (October 19th) a strong set of Q3 numbers, with Q3 profit run-rates well ahead of what we are looking for in H2 overall. Group net revenues were up 9pc (Davy H2 forecast: +7.9pc), with costs in both retail and online lower than expected. The strong trading update has been accompanied by an announcement that William Hill is to proceed with a valuation of Playtech's stake in William Hill Online. That process will be concluded by February 2013, with William Hill then deciding whether to acquire the stake by the end of Q1.

C and C will report H1 results to end-August on October 23rd. "We expect the weak trends reported in Q1 for GB and Irish cider to have extended over the wet summer months. C and C's beer business is likely to have performed well despite the difficult summer trading conditions. The export business should continue its strong double-digit growth. We expect declines of 6pc and 5pc in group sales and EBIT respectively (constant currency). We forecast H1 EBIT of E64m. For the full year, we expect EBIT of E112m (broadly a flat out-turn yoy). This is at the bottom of management's guidance range of E112-118m, issued at the end of June," said Davy's Barry Gallagher. Shares in the drinks group rose 4c to E3.74.