By Business & Finance 
Business & Finance brings you the day’s Irish business news in brief.
Irish enjoy Golden Globe nomination success Irish Film Board-funded films Sing Street and The Lobster have received Golden Globe nominations, including a nod for Colin Farrell alongside fellow Irish stars Ruth Negga and Catriona Balfe. Chief executive of IFB James Hickey commented: “Congratulations to all the Irish Golden Globe nominees announced today, recognised amongst the best in the world in their craft. Golden Globe nominations are an incredible achievement. Ruth Negga received the nod for her performance in Loving having begun her career on Irish projects including numerous IFB-funded films and Catriona Balfe was nominated for her performance in Outlander. Sing Street received a nomination for Best Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical as this year’s nominations were revealed. Innovation Value Institute to host summit with digital thought-leadership agenda This Wednesday and Thursday, the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University has announced it will partner with the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) for a joint ‘CIO Symposium’ on the IVI Winter Summit agenda, in Dublin’s Convention Centre and Spencer Hotel. The theme of this year’s IVI Winter Summit, ‘Winning Strategies for enabling the Digital Enterprise – secrets of successful CIOs and thought leaders’, will attract C-level executives as well as senior IT and business professionals. The two-day event, which includes a gala networking dinner the evening of the 14th, features interactive panel discussions on ‘The changing face of today’s CIO’ and ‘The top three predictions for the digital enterprise’ as well as global organisations like BNY Mellon and Xilinx speaking on the value and benefit they are achieving from the use of IVI’s IT-Capability Maturity Framework.
Newspread announces €7m magazine distribution deals with RTÉ and Harmonia
Wholesaler and distributor of indigenous newspapers and magazines Newspread has today announced the renewal of contracts with Harmonia and RTÉ to distribute the magazines in Ireland.
The contracts, with a combined retail sales value of €7m per annum, will see the company distribute 10 million magazines to over 6,500 retailers across the country.
Willie O’Reilly, commercial director, RTÉ, said: “For two decades Newspread has distributed the RTÉ Guide to newsagents and retailers around Ireland, and in that time we have become close partners. The RTÉ Guide is Ireland’s number one selling magazine, incorporating premium entertainment and lifestyle features along with comprehensive TV listings.”
10 fintech start-ups unveiled at Dublin’s Dogpatch Labs
A three-month development and mentoring programme by 10 new Irish fintech companies came to completion today at Dogpatch Labs in the chq building, IFSC, Dublin.
The 10 companies were each awarded €50,000 in equity support earlier this year through Enterprise Ireland’s Competitive Start Fund, as part of the IFS2020 strategy.
The successful applicants received membership to Dogpatch Labs, in partnership with Ulster Bank and access to the Ulster Bank Innovation Solutions team.
The successful companies include: id-Pal; WeSavvy; CyberRiskAware; AssureHedge; Martello Low Carbon Solutions; Ciaran McGuckian; UCompare; Tucr; and Inship.
Film tourism a major factor in a jump in visitors during 2016
Approximately 10.5 million people will have visited Ireland by the end of 2016. This figure is one of the best ever recorded in Irish tourism.
A review of visitor patterns over the last 12 months was launched today by Tourism Ireland.
There was a 10.5% increase in the number of people travelling here compared to 2015 leading to revenue around the €5.4bn mark.
The US, German and French markets saw strong growth.
Screen tourism, generated by the Star Wars movies and the Game of Thrones TV series, is also attracting large visitor numbers.
Swiss-Irish food firm Aryzta raises €386m as McCann decision imminent
Aryzta has raised €386m through a number of ways to refinance existing short-term indebtedness.
The company is one of the largest frozen bakery companies in the world and the company has said the debt offer was significantly oversubscribed and that it was upsized to meet investor demand.
Aryzta issued the debts through its subsidiary Aryzta Euro Finance dac.
Shareholders are soon to vote on the appointment of Gary McGann as chairman.
Institutional Shareholder Services has recommended that shareholders vote down the appointment at the company’s agm in Zurich because of concern over McGann’s workload.
