Merrion Capital, a subsidiary of Landsbanki Islands, has entered into an agreement to acquire Oppenheim Investment Managers Limited (OIML), the Dublin-based Investment Management arm of Sal Oppenheim. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval from the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

OIML has circa E1 billion under management and has consistently been one of the best performing fund managers in the Irish market. The acquisition will more than double the size of funds under management at Merrion.

Glanbia has announced a mid-year trading update this morning in which it indicates all divisions are trading in line with expectations and that it is on track for double digit growth in 2008. In Ireland, Consumer Foods saw some margin recovery while Agribusiness is indicated as delivering a satisfactory result given the increases in feed and fertilizer input costs. Food Ingredients and Nutritionals had a strong first half in its international business. In Ireland, Food Ingredients is expected to see margin decline given the lag to pass on raw material cost increases. The USA Food Ingredients business is seeing strong demand and volume growth. The global Nutritionals business is performing well and is expected to deliver a good full year result. The international JVs are expected to deliver a significantly improved full year result.

We are currently forecasting FY08 EPS growth of 11.4% which is slightly below market consensus. Following this mornings annoucement and managements comfort with current consensus there is upside to our number. However we believe this is reflected in the current valuation.

We have a HOLD recommendation on Glanbia.