ISEQ in the red
Shares in Eircom rose 1c to 2.17 following the announcement that it has opened its books to bidders Babcock and Brown and the Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT), the telecoms company announced today.
Due diligence arrangements have been put in place with Babcock & Brown Capital Limited and the ESOT.
The ESOT, which teamed up with Babcock and Brown to launch a bid for the company, is the second largest shareholder in eircom after Babcock, an Australian investment house.
Babcock has spent the best part of €700m acquiring a 28.8% stake in eircom, while the ESOT owns 21.8%, giving the two more than the 50% required to take control.
Elsewhere Ormond rose by over 9%, up 2c to €24c following the annoucement that it has uncovered a large copper-gold-silver resource with the potential to become a successful mining operation at the La Zarza project in the pyrite belt mining district of southern Spain.
"(This resources) could produce circa 65,000 ounces gold equivalent per year," said Ormonde MD Kerr Anderson.
The gold resource at the site is lower due to less continuity of the zone when compared with the previous operator’s interpretation, combined with Ormonde’s use of a conservative estimation method, the company said today, but added that current drilling will significantly increase the gold resource.
Overall though the ISEQ had a bad start to the week, falling 81.26 points to 7815.52.
But AIB and Bank of Ireland suffered heavy losses, with AIB falling 35c to €18.65 and Bank of Ireland falling 30c to €14.54.
Anglo Irish Bank fell 14c to €12.91 while Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend, rising 57c to €20.57.
