Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster announced that Augentius Fund Administration is to establish a centre in Belfast, which will employ up to 164 professional staff by the end of 2014.

Augentius provides outsourced fund administration services to the private equity and real estate sectors. Formed 10 years ago with offices in London and Guernsey, Augentius has subsequently expanded internationally opening offices in New York, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Singapore and more recently The Netherlands.

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Investment in communications infrastructure, and strong demand for network and IT services, help boost BT’s performance

Dublin and Belfast: BT today announced the results for its all-Ireland operation for the full year to 31st March 2012. Reported revenue of £757m was up 1% year on year (broadly flat in the year excluding the impact of foreign exchange). Profits (EBITDA*) increased by 9% year on year, as a result of continued transformation (including improved supplier management and efficiency programmes) and the successful delivery of several large retail and wholesale contracts.

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The Chicago Mercantile Exchange group has confirmed it will create up to 90 jobs in Northern Ireland when it opens its first office in Belfast this year.

The group first announced details of its proposed investment in the North last January, but at the time declined to expand on how many positions it was likely to create.

The group, with headquarters in Chicago, describes itself as the “largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace”.

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What is your company’s elevator pitch?

CME Group is the world’s most diverse derivatives marketplace where businesses everywhere come to manage risk. CME Group offers the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.

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John Healy, Director and Head of Technology Citi Belfast, tells SyncNI what is driving the growth of the company’s Belfast site, and explains the important role it plays in Citi’s global operations.

Citi has been in Northern Ireland for more than 6 years now and over that time it has grown from the original plan for 375 roles to a position today where it employs around 1,200 staff in Belfast, with an expectation to increase that to 1,500 over the next 3 years. This rise in headcount at Citi’s Centre of Excellence in Belfast is a significant number for Northern Ireland, where it has become a major employer.

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Following a trade mission to Northern Ireland from the most powerful woman in China, Liu Yandong, BCMS Corporate has announced a multi-million pound opportunity for a local firm to sell their business to a listed Chinese company.

The company, which has up to £50m to spend on acquiring one or more overseas businesses as part of a growth strategy, has approached BCMS Corporate to help them find innovative and technologically advanced firms in industries including the production of lab analysis and medical equipment, monitoring products, ecological improvements and energy conservation.

BCMS Corporate, which has an office in Belfast, is the market leader in the sale of privately owned companies.

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All of Belfast’s available grade A office space combined would be needed to meet one single requirement issued in Dublin this week, according to Lisney's David McNellis.

The leading commercial property agent says that Belfast has a total of around 400,000 sq ft of grade A office space available (based on research by Lisney), the same amount of space Microsoft is currently seeking to acquire in one Dublin deal.

Mr McNellis says that this highlights the disparity between the two markets that exists almost entirely because of the difference in corporation tax levied.

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Got an Idea? Need Funding? Here's Where to Look If you are an entrepreneur or the owner of a young or developing small business, one of the hardest parts of realising your ideas, inventions, schemes and business plans is getting funding.

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Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has announced that insurance underwriting agency Midas Underwriting Ltd is to create 40 new jobs, supported by Invest Northern Ireland through the Jobs Fund.

The Newtownards company, formerly known as Claimsafe (UK) Ltd, has provided a complete claims handling solution for insurance brokers to outsource their household and private motor claims for over a decade. The expansion will see it offer household and motor policies to brokers in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

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Invest Northern Ireland recently hosted a workshop to launch a leading international financial services event for Northern Ireland.

The Innotribe Start-up Challenge and Conference, organised by Innotribe, the innovation arm of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide lnterbank Financial Telecommunication), is designed to enable collaborative innovation amongst banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers worldwide.

The high profile competition and conference covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, will take place at Titanic Belfast on 13th and 14th June 2012.

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Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has welcomed the acquisition of Londonderry based Opt 2 Vote, one of the UK's leading providers of electoral managed services, by IDOX plc, a leading independent supplier of software and services.

Opt 2 Vote Limited was founded in 2002 by CEO Ann-Marie Slavin and is a provider in e-voting systems and services, mainly serving public sector customers from its headquarters in Londonderry.

Commenting on the announcement Minister Foster said: “The acquisition of Opt 2 Vote by IDOX plc, a fast growing technology plc company based in the UK, is a further illustration of the innovation, skills, and entrepreneurial flair of our local companies and will hopefully enable the company to further accelerate its successful growth to date.

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Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster today announced that Cowen International Ltd is to set up a technology research and development centre in Belfast, potentially creating up to 50 high value jobs.

Cowen International is a subsidiary of U.S based financial services firm Cowen Group, headquartered in New York.

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A new Bank of Ireland Accelerator Funding Programme which has been developed in association with IT Sligo, was launched at Enterprise & Innovation Week.

Bank of Ireland Sligo is committed to supporting and growing relationships with small and medium enterprises throughout Sligo.

As part of this commitment the Bank is delighted to establish closer links with IT Sligo’s Innovation Centre.

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Belfast based Commercial Finance Company, Keys Commercial Finance Limited has been nominated for the prestigious Insider Media Northern Ireland Dealmakers Awards 2012 in the category of Business Funding team of the year. The nomination comes in less than twelve months of the company being in business.

Speaking on the announcement, Managing Director Judith Totten says:

“Obviously we are delighted with being nominated for Business Funding Team of the Year.

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Northern Ireland’s first society for Actuaries, The Society of Northern Ireland Actuaries (SONIA), was launched last night at Queen's University Belfast’s Management School by Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.

SONIA will be a society for actuarial professionals along with those students undertaking the Queen's University Management School's (QUMS) Actuarial Science and Risk Management degree.

Speaking about the motivation for SONIA, Colin O’Hare, President of the Society and Programme Director for the actuarial science degree at Queen's, said: "The idea of establishing a society that includes professional actuaries and undergraduate students as its core membership has never been tried before in the United Kingdom.

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Northern Ireland’s first ever financial trading room is set to open at Queen’s University Belfast. The First Derivatives Trading Room, supported by Invest NI, will provide a dynamic learning environment for students hoping to embark in a career in financial services or technology.

Based at Queen’s University Management School, Riddel Hall, Stranmillis, the facility, which will replicate New York and London trading rooms, will give students a real-life experience of a busy stock exchange with the capacity to deal in equities, bonds, foreign exchange and derivative instruments.

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The Almac Board is delighted to announce the appointment of Kevin Stephens to the executive position of Finance Director, Almac Group, with effect from 1 January 2012.

Kevin will take responsibility for all financial aspects of Almac Group activities globally, leading the financial management teams for all global operations, supporting the planned growth of the business and co-ordinating financial control and reporting throughout the Group.

After graduating from Queen’s University, Belfast, with a degree in Economics, Kevin qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and then worked for 14 years with Kemira NI as Financial Controller.

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After 40 years of successful book publishing Blackstaff Press will mark its special birthday in a style that shows just how much the publishing industry has changed over the last 40 years – with the launch of an eBook list.

This digital list will initially include 3 new titles and 11 of the most important titles from its significant and successful backlist, including Sam Hanna Bell's December Bride and John Richardson's Dream On.

The digital books will be available to download to eReader devises including Kindle, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Sony Reader, PC, Mac and Android Phones – we are making our books available to meet the new way that people will be reading.

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Lurgan-based, Lumen Financial Planning Ltd, is one of the first firms in Northern Ireland to be approved by The Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) as an Accredited Financial Planning FirmTM.

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Aurion Learning has been working closely with Action for Children’s Learning and Development Team to produce a suite of e-learning programmes.

Designed to support Action for Children employees and volunteers develop new skills and competencies, the four e-learning programmes focus on Behaviour Support, Safeguarding, E-Finance and Learning & Development.

Ian Millar, Deputy Director of Human Resources for Action for Children said:

“Our Safeguarding emodule provides staff who are new to Action for Children with foundation knowledge about recognising, reporting, referring and recording instances of abuse and neglect of children.

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Ever since I was little, I\'ve wanted to start a business. It wouldn\'t have mattered what field I went into, a business was always going to be involved somewhere.

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Chain Reaction Cycles is a new business that has been successfully built up in the last three years.

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Lifeandlooks.com (part of the McKay Pharmacy Group) have had a fantastic few years since launching their first ecommerce site with us in 2007. 

We have recently worked with them to upgrade their ecommerce platform and refresh the look and feel of the site.

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William McKiernan, founder and executive chairman of CyberSource Corp., was honored at Stanford University Friday night for his contributions to innovation and technology in Ireland.

The award was given by the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG).

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