The Irish Independent reports that United Drug chief executive Liam Fitzgerald yesterday brushed aside suggestions that the introduction this week by the HSE of reduced payments to pharmacies that supply drugs under the community health scheme will have a negative impact on the company.

Speaking following the group's AGM in Dublin, Mr Fitzgerald said that he retained the view that the HSE's analysis of wholesale drug prices in Ireland is inaccurate and at variance with the reality.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Union has claimed that up to 300 pharmacies may be at risk of closure if the HSE goes ahead with its plan. United Drug said it's likely that the most vulnerable will be pharmacies that have recently opened and where borrowing remain high, and those in rural areas.

United Drug's wholesale pharmaceutical business on the island of Ireland accounts for 40pc of the company's group profit, but Mr Fitzgerald reiterated a forecast for double-digit profit growth this financial year. Trading during January had continued to be strong, said the firm, mirroring overall group performance for the first quarter of the financial year.

However, should sterling weaken further, revised guidance may be appropriate, suggested Mr Fitzgerald. About one-third of United Drug's €1.58bn revenue last year was generated in the UK.

Potential

The company's earnings per share may rise 11pc this fiscal year after rising 14pc last year, according to the median of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Chairman Ronnie Kells said that a number of potential acquisitions are in the pipeline, and said that United Drug is keen to expand its presence in the US market, where last year it paid up to $10.5m to buy Pennsylvania-based Alliance Healthcare Information.

It operates a call centre that handles drug queries from the public on behalf of manufacturers.

Mr Fitzgerald said that United Drug could spend a total of €200m on acquisitions, and has no requirement to undertake a rights issue.

He said that detractors who had once questioned the company's ability to generate cash have been proved wrong.

The Irish Independent also reports that Cork-headquartered recruitment firm Premier Group yesterday gatecrashed the sale of London-listed peer Imprint with a £45.2m (€60m) indicative cash offer for the company.

Bank of Ireland and Bank of Scotland (Ireland) are believed to have been lined up to bankroll the potential bid, which would more than double the size of Premier and ramp up its footprint in the UK. IBI Corporate Finance, a unit of Bank of Ireland, is advising Premier.

Imprint, which owns prominent British financial headhunters Morgan McKinley and ECHM, was founded earlier this decade by Limerick man Brian Hamill and Dublin-based financier Pierce Casey. They listed the company on London's Alternative Investment Market in 2001. It went on to acquire Dublin-based recruiter Accreate in 2005 and, more recently, expanded by acquisition into the Middle East.

Mr Hamill stepped down as chief executive last October as the group issued its third profit warning of the year. He still holds 6.4pc of the group.

The former boss subsequently mounted a bid for the group's executive search division, consisting of the WoodHamill and Imprint & Selection brands, which were acknowledged to be the problem children within the group in 2007. Mr Hamill reached an agreement to buy the businesses in November for £3.12m in cash.

The broader Imprint group, in the meantime, has been stalked for months by two rivals, OPD Group and Hydrogen.

At the same time, Mr Casey, who stepped down as chairman last April, increased his stake in the group to 3.7pc.

Imprint received competing bids from OPD and Hydrogen late last year.

As neither declared its bid final, the company's board and financial advisers, Altium, set up a competitive auction earlier this month.

Hydrogen's renewed offer -- consisting of 96p in cash and 13.6p-worth of Hydrogen stock for every Imprint share -- won the board's approval and was due to be voted on by shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) this Friday.

However, in response to Premier's proposed 115p bid, Imprint said it will "actively consider" adjourning the EGM to allow the Irish company some time to make a formal offer.

Shares in Imprint soared 7.6pc on AIM yesterday to 113p.

The Irish Times reports that Ireland's largest food company, Kerry Group, will double in size over the next five to six years, its new chief executive Stan McCarthy promised yesterday as he announced a 35 per cent increase in pre-tax profits for 2007.

Kerry overcame soaring raw material and energy costs by passing on price increases and improving its supply chain efficiency, resulting in record earnings before tax and write-offs of €500 million.

Sales grew 6.7 per cent to €4.8 billion on a like-for-like basis (excluding the impact of acquisitions, disposals and currency translation).

Mr McCarthy said Kerry would double revenues to €10 billion through a mix of strong organic growth and acquisitions.

Kerry's global food ingredients and flavours business grew faster than its UK and Ireland consumer foods operation.

Helped by a double-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region, like-for-like revenues in the ingredients division rose by 7.8 per cent to €3.3 billion, with operating profit of €310 million up 7.6 per cent.

Consumer foods, which now only account for a third of its business, secured sales growth of 5.6 per cent to €1.8 billion, with profit up 6.4 per cent at €119 million, the results showed.

In the US, which accounts for 27 per cent of Kerry's revenues, Mr McCarthy said there was encouraging demand for natural and healthy ingredients in the ready-to-eat cereal and nutrition sectors.

While in Europe, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are target growth areas.

Kerry's activities in the manufacture of proteins for cell nutrition were also "a rich vein of growth" in 2007, Davy Research noted.

Sales growth of 17 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, which now accounts for 9 per cent of the business, were "not an aberration", Mr McCarthy said.

The highlights for its consumer foods division included the Denny brand, with Denny rashers outperforming its category, although sausage sales fell slightly.

The Dawn Benefits range of functional fruit juices increased its segment share from 9.9 per cent to 19.2 per cent.

The expanding Freshways sandwich and snack brand took advantage of the Republic's buoyant "food-to-go" market, while the Low Low brand reached the number two position in cheese, behind Charleville, another Kerry-owned brand.

Mr McCarthy said Kerry's performance was "very credible" in a tough business environment.

Analysts agreed, describing Kerry's preliminary statement of results as "upbeat", "very solid" and "comfortable".

The Irish Times also reports that a new analysis of business in the Republic has found a yawning gap between the productivity levels of family-owned firms and that of their non-family-owned counterparts.

The analysis of Annual Services Inquiry 2005 data by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) found labour productivity - measured by gross value added (GVA) per worker - of non-family owned firms was more than twice that of their family-owned rivals.

The gap was greatest between companies in the transport, storage and communication sectors where non-family owned firms generated GVA of € 134,000 per person compared to € 48,000 per person for their family-owned rivals. In the hotel and restaurant trade - where the gap was at its smallest - non-family-owned firms produced GVA per person of € 28,000 compared to € 22,000 per person for family-owned peers.

The report uncovered willingness to adopt so-called information and communication technology (ICT) - such as e-mail and having a website - as a major distinguishing factor between family-owned and non-family-owned companies. Higher levels of Irish ownership, lower levels of capital spending (family-owned firms accounted for 33 per cent of spending compared to a 46 per cent share of the total services sector) and a negligible share of overall service exports also appeared to hold back family-owned firms when compared with their non-family rivals.

However, research presented alongside the CSO study yesterday suggested family-owned firms are catching up. "Family firms have increased productivity growth rates in [ the] retail and wholesale sectors...there is evidence of some closure of the productivity gap between 2004 and 2005," according to Mary Keeling, managing consultant at the IBM Global Centre for Economic Development Research.

The Irish Examiner reports that the hit on Ireland from any world trade deal negotiated by European Commissioner Peter Mandelson would be at least €2 billion.

Irish Farmers Association president Pádraig Walshe made the claim during a lunchtime protest outside the European Commission offices in Dublin yesterday, attended by an estimated 300 farmers.

In a statement, the commission said it is very much aware of Irish concerns in relation to beef in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

“We have a mandate to negotiate that has been given to us by the 27 member states. The commission has reassured ministers time and again that it will not go beyond that mandate.

“We continue to strive for a balanced deal, and the commission will not ask member states to approve a deal that is not balanced.

“As of now, the chances of concluding the deal are far from certain. Others need to make a much greater contribution towards concluding the deal than we have seen so far,” it said.

Meanwhile, Mr Walshe told the protesting farmers that Mr Mandelson’s concessions to the Brazilians and other South Americans on beef would wipe out the suckler cow herd across Europe and in Ireland.

“The Irish beef and livestock sector has faced many challenges over the years, but it was never in such a dangerous situation as it is facing over the next three months.

“The WTO negotiations are in a perilous phase and if Mandelson is not stopped in his tracks, all the indications are that he will concede even more to try and pull together a deal,” he said.

Mr Walshe claimed that Mr Mandelson is working behind closed doors in Geneva in a reckless destruction of the Common Agricultural Policy.

“He is prepared to sell out the beef industry in Ireland, to get a deal at any cost. He is engaged in a race to the bottom, to the lowest standards of food safety, animal welfare and the environment.

“The only winners in his agenda are the multinationals, commodity traders and corporate ranchers,” said Mr Walshe.

He said the IFA’s assessment is that the situation is now so critical that Ireland must declare a vital national interest to stop the sellout. The only option open to the Government is to use the veto, the IFA president added.

Pointing out that the IFA has been to the forefront in supporting the development and integration of the EU over the past 35 years, he said his personal wish and that of the leadership is to maintain its positive position on Europe.

“However, it would be unrealistic to expect the farming community and rural people to vote for the Lisbon Treaty when Mandelson is planning the destruction of the Irish and European family farm structure,” he said.

The Financial Times reports that German business confidence has risen unexpectedly, strengthening the European Central Bank’s argument that global financial turmoil might have no “sizable” impact on the eurozone economy.

The increase in Germany’s Ifo business climate index for February, powered largely by an improvement in retailers’ confidence, was the latest evidence suggesting no dramatic collapse in growth is imminent across the 15-country eurozone.

Continuing robust eurozone growth would make a reduction in interest rates a still more distant prospect – in spite of the recent emergency cuts by the US Federal Reserve.

Lucas Papademos, the ECB’s vice-president, hinted on Tuesday in New York that the central bank was likely next month to revise upwards its inflation forecast, amid fears about the outlook for food and fuel prices.

By contrast, Don Kohn, the Fed’s vice-chairman, on Tuesday indicated that he remained open to cutting US interest rates further, even though he admitted that high energy and food prices may be passing through to core inflation.

With combating inflation the ECB’s top priority, a higher forecast rate would reduce further the scope for cutting borrowing costs. An expected decline in eurozone inflation – which hit a 14-year high of 3.2 per cent in January – would occur “more slowly than previously envisaged”, Mr Papademos warned. The ECB aims to keep inflation “below but close” to 2 per cent. It has left its main interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent since June.

Mr Papademos said the impact of the financial market turmoil on economic activity remained hard to assess, but the latest information suggested “that it is not likely to be sizeable”.

The FT also reports that buy-to-let landlords are showing few signs of cutting back borrowing in the face of tighter credit conditions, judging by figures showing the sector increased its share of the overall mortgage market in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders said on Tuesday that buy-to-let lending totalled £11.6bn on gross advances number 84,800 in the last three months of the year, slowing from 94,300 advances totalling £12.5bn in the previous quarter.

At the end of 2007, lenders on average required landlords to put down a deposit of at least 15 per cent of the property’s value, with rental income amounting to 120 per cent of the mortgage payment, the CML said.

However, tighter credit conditions appear to be affecting buy-to-let investors less than the wider mortgage market – despite fears that those with highly geared investments could pull out of the market in droves.

Instead, the proportion of loans granted to buy-to-let landlords has increased steadily. The CML’s figures showed that the buy-to-let sector now accounts for 10.3 per cent of outstanding mortgages and attracted 13.3 per cent of gross advances by value last quarter, up from 12.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

“Tenant demand for private rented property remains strong,” said Michael Coogan, the CML’s director general. Although many buy-to-let mortgages were linked to interbank rates, so that repayments rose sharply in line with Libor in the summer and autumn, these would now be returning to lower levels, he added.

The CML also said levels of arrears and reposessions were lower in the buy-to-let sector. In the wider market, 1.1 per cent of mortgage borrowers were in arrears at the end of 2007, compared with 0.73 per cent of buy-to-let loans.