Media Bites

Sunday Independent

Toll road operator turned renewables outfit NTR is looking to raise €500m to build its portfolio. The capital raised will be used for a new green energy fund.

It follows on from a €250m fund raised in 2016 which was open to outside equity investors and has been used to buy wind farms in Ireland and in the UK. That fund was boosted by project finance in addition to the €250m of equity.

Sunday Telegraph

Profit warnings have fallen to the lowest level in seven years as British companies confound the current economic gloom.

Investors had braced themselves for a bumpy year amid warnings that the economy would perform poorly.

But profits have performed better than expected.

Sunday Times

The chief executive of IDA Ireland has called for a shakeup of the planning system in light of long delays to Apple’s plans for an €850m data centre in Galway.

Martin Shanahan said “tight turnaround times” were needed for big planning decisions or companies would choose to invest elsewhere.

Sunday Business Post

The State has begun the process of collecting €15bn in taxes and interest from Apple following last year’s ruling that the company benefited from a sweetheart deal which effectively amounted to state aid. The Department of Finance and Apple are to hire escrow agents, custodians and investment managers to handle the cash over a number of years.