Strike talks, another PTSB twist and nearly €1bn for Irish AI-linked firms

12 October 2026

Good morning. Monday starts with one last attempt to stop a public-sector strike, another twist in the PTSB sale and fresh evidence that serious capital is moving into Irish businesses. The weekend also brought a huge number on data-centre electricity use, a major DCC disposal, a 250-aircraft order from Avolon and a new €100m Kingspan lawsuit. Let's get into it.

Monday - The Weekend Round-Up…

There were a few notable weekend stories.

Four US tech giants now account for almost 20% of Ireland’s metered electricity use, with Microsoft, Meta, AWS and Google consuming close to 6.5 terawatt hours last year. AWS alone accounted for 57% of that total.

DCC Energy also agreed to sell Nexora for $725m, completing the final major step in its shift to a pure energy business. Expected net proceeds of $701m mean shareholders are due another 42p per share, well below the maximum £1.25 available under the wider takeover terms.

Irish aviation was busy too. Avolon ordered 250 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, while Aer Lingus opened a redundancy process offering cabin crew up to 104 weeks’ basic pay, capped at €180,000. Dublin Airport is also seeking to expand its US pre-clearance facilities.

Kingspan, meanwhile, is facing a €100m investor lawsuit over alleged Grenfell-related misrepresentations, which it denies, days after the European Commission separately fined the company €40m over information supplied during its abandoned Trimo takeover.

1. Government Makes Last Push To Stop Wednesday’s Strike. The Government will try to reopen talks with public-sector unions today as more than 300,000 workers prepare for a 24-hour strike on Wednesday. Budget 2027 set aside €1.2bn for a new pay deal, but the argument is over the terms. Unions say there has been no meaningful offer and want a multi-year agreement linked to inflation, while Government points to the 9.6% cumulative increases under the last deal, ahead of 6.6% inflation over the same period. Ministers still expect Wednesday’s strike to go ahead, making today the last real chance to bridge the gap.

2. Ireland Is Putting Serious Money Behind Companies That Want To Scale. Irish companies connected to AI have raised €947.3m across 182 deals since 2025, according to PitchBook, including €256m in the first nine months of this year. Now the State is adding another layer. ISIF’s new €1bn scaling programme will run to 2030, with €100m specifically reserved for higher-risk venture capital and a focus on technology, life sciences, business services and food. Private capital is already moving; Government now wants more Irish companies to stay and scale with it.

3. Another PTSB Suitor Has Entered The Picture. Axis Capital’s potential €3.20-a-share offer was already known, but it has now hired German bank Quirin as it tries to secure the financing needed to turn that interest into a firm bid. More strikingly, another potential bidder has now appeared. Scotchstone Capital has floated its own possible offer, although it gave no price and PTSB says it has had no contact with the firm, dismissing the approach as “highly speculative”. Bawag’s agreed €2.97-a-share deal remains the transaction being progressed ahead of its 27 October High Court hearing, but there are now two would-be challengers trying to complicate it.

4. Gallagher Adds €70m Of Premiums In Wexford Deal. US insurance giant Arthur J. Gallagher has acquired Wexford-based Ornella Underwriting, adding around €70m in gross written premiums to its Irish business. Ornella distributes motor and commercial insurance and made €2m in pretax profit last year. Gallagher already operates here through Pen Underwriting Ireland, so this is an expansion rather than its first Irish move, with the deal expected to roughly double the premium income coming through its Irish operations.

5. Kenmare’s New Suitor Has Already Changed The Numbers. Kenmare Resources was the Iseq’s best-performing stock last week after a takeover approach from Abu Dhabi-backed International Resources Holdings sent its shares up 26% across the week. The Dublin-listed miner still has no firm offer on the table and IRH has until 17 November to make one or walk away. The timing is awkward for shareholders because Kenmare’s latest earnings fell 91%, but its Mozambique mine sits on one of the world’s largest titanium deposits and can potentially keep producing for another century.

Saudi Arabia is facing a sharp escalation after repeated Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport killed civilians and disrupted business activity, with pressure building on the US over whether to become more directly involved. Oil prices eased this morning after Donald Trump claimed Russia and Ukraine had agreed an immediate “energy ceasefire”, with Brent down 1.3% to $103.34 a barrel in Asian trading. In Europe, the EU is moving to cap Chinese hybrid-car imports at 350,000 vehicles a year initially as it tries to tackle a trade deficit with China running at more than €1bn a day.

Tech & AI

AI financing keeps getting bigger, and Ireland feels it through both power and paper wealth.

Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have committed to a $60bn debt package funding Anthropic’s lease of Google chips, the largest chip-financing deal to date, according to the FT. They are approaching other banks to take portions, and Broadcom is partly backstopping the debt, meaning it stands behind it to lower Anthropic’s borrowing costs. DeepSeek is set to raise almost $12bn, with commitments above its $7.45bn target and completion expected this month, per Reuters. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is reportedly seeking up to $100bn from Gulf investors, but those are talks, not commitments.

Power is the first Irish exposure. UCC’s Paul Deane says the challenge with data centres is geographical concentration, with the hyperscalers’ sites all in greater Dublin.

Wealth is the second. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index ranks Stripe’s Patrick and John Collison 177th and 178th, at an estimated $16.3bn each, in a year when the roughly 100 tech fortunes in its top 500 gained a combined $845bn in the nine months to 30 September. Stripe was valued at $159bn earlier this year, and the value of payments it processes has almost doubled in two years to $1.9tn.

Watch Thursday’s launch of UCD’s AI institute, led by Robin Burke, which has not disclosed its investment.

In Tuesday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Legal & Regulatory.

Matt Cooper spent the weekend warning Celtic supporters to be careful what they wish for as protests against Dermot Desmond followed him all the way to the golf course at St Andrews to throw tennis balls at him whilst he enjoyed the home of golf. Irish shoppers, meanwhile, can console themselves with the news that our deli meats have the lowest average fat content in Europe, even if some of our yoghurts and desserts are doing their best to balance things out. And for anyone considering getting away from it all, cruising is booming. The ticket might look reasonable, but drinks packages for a couple can still run to €700 to €1,500 for a week. Worth it? Maybe.

The Read – Business Post – Why after decades at the top Maersk has lost its global throne (Requires Free Account)

Maersk has already lost its position as the world’s largest container shipping company, and its place as Denmark’s biggest business by revenue is now under pressure too. The piece looks at how its shift towards integrated logistics cost it market share while rivals such as MSC and DSV kept expanding. A useful read on the strategic cost of choosing focus over scale. Link: Why after decades at the top Maersk has lost its global throne

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