The Irish Independent reports that chewing gum giant Wrigley's is to bankroll a €7m campaign to stop people discarding their gum on our streets.

A deal between the Government here and Wrigley's, the first anywhere in the world, is being announced today.

Wrigley's has agreed to hand over €7m to pay for a nationwide education and awareness campaign.

A total of €1m is being handed to a third-level college to develop ways of removing unsightly gum from the streets.

The world-beating deal means that Wrigley's won't have to face a government levy of 15c on each packet of chewing gum.

After over a year of negotiations the deal involves a series of pilot projects in a number of towns where the public will be bombarded with messages on why they shouldn't spit out their chewing gum.

The Irish Independent also reports that a new wave of immigration will help drive property price growth of 8pc this year, IIB Bank predicted yesterday.

The number of migrant workers here already 'dwarfs' UK levels, said IIB economist Austin Hughes.

Yet this "extraordinary number may well be just the first wave", he said, announcing his 2006 forecast for the property market.

Around 137,000 Poles came here last year, using airline seat capacity of 1,500 per week. In 2006, that capacity will increase over 500pc to 8,000 seats per week, stimulating an even greater influx of immigrants, Mr Hughes noted.

This will create demand for rental properties as well as new homes.

The phenomenon is similar to a "Ryanair effect on property prices noted in certain parts of France and Italy following the introduction of low-cost flights".

Mr Hughes, who has been one of the more conservative economic forecasters, was very bullish about prospects for property.

He signalled that chances of the "bubble bursting" were remote - even with interest rates on the rise.

Mr Hughes predicted a 0.75pc increase in rates this year, which is slightly more than expected.

However, "any adverse impact (on property prices) from higher interest rates will be more than offset by the persistence of very strong demand," he said.

Fast-rising private sector debt levels of €260bn have raised fears that debt is spiralling out of control.

Yet Mr Hughes played down these fears, insisting that Irish consumers are in fact "underborrowed".

Money on deposit totals €60bn and householders have €545bn worth of positive "equity" in their homes.

"Looking only on one side of the balance sheet ignores the fact that Irish property wealth has soared in the past decade," Mr Hughes said.

"The net worth of Irish householders (market value of house less property debt) has risen from 2.3 times after tax incomes in 1996 to 4.3 times in 2005."

This is three-and-a-half times greater than the equivalent level in the US, where householders use their property almost as an ATM outlet, dipping into their equity over and over again by borrowing, Mr Hughes observed.

"This comparison underscores the the exceptional level of Irish property-related wealth and its extraordinary growth in recent years."

He estimates that the average Irish household will hold some €270,000 in net property wealth in 2006.

"Moreover, someone purchasing an average priced Irish house in 2001 will have seen the value of their property rise by some €110k by the time the first SSIAs mature," he added.

The Irish Times reports that mobile network Vodafone secured higher average revenue per customer in the Republic than in any of the group's 17 other markets in the final three months of 2005, its figures show.

The State's biggest mobile operator published figures showing that its two million-plus Irish customers paid average monthly bills of €50.20 between September and the end of December last. The figure was down on the €51.40 a month average paid by Irish customers in the previous three-month period, and also below the €50.70 a month that they paid during the same period in 2004.

However, it was the highest of the 18 principal territories in which Vodafone operates. The next nearest was Japan, where subscribers paid an average of €42 a month during the same period. The cheapest Vodafone market was Egypt, where customers paid the equivalent of €10.50 a month for their services during the same period.

Customers in the Republic paid considerably higher bills than those in other European countries with well developed mobile markets. In Spain the average monthly bill was €35.30; in Britain it was €34.60; in the Netherlands it was €34.50; in Italy it was €27.70; and in Germany it was €22.90.

Vodafone's group statement yesterday singled out the German, British and Italian markets as being intensely competitive, forcing prices down.

Gerry Fahy, the group's strategy director in the Republic, described the Irish market as "highly competitive". A Vodafone Ireland spokeswoman said that high bills paid by customers in the Republic did not mean that they were being charged more, but that they were spending more on mobile services.

She pointed out that, on average, Vodafone customers in the Republic spent an average of 215 minutes on their mobile phones, up from 210 minutes a month during the September to December period in 2004.

Vodafone's figures show that its Australian customers used their phones for an average of 217 minutes a month, while paying an average of €31.40 a month for services during the same September-December period.

Using a formula for calculation provided by Vodafone, the figures in the group's statement show that the average customer in the Republic paid 23.3 cent a minute, while their Australian counterparts paid the equivalent of just over 14 cent. In both countries, 73 per cent of Vodafone's customers are pre-paid - topping up their credit as they go - while the balance get a monthly bill.

Pre-paid customers on average spend less every month on mobile services than post-paid customers. In the Republic, the former paid €31.60 a month in the final quarter of 2005, while post-paid subscribers received monthly average bills of €99.90.

In Australia, post-paid customers received average bills of €57.70 a month during the period, and pre-paid were charged €21.40. Vodafone Ireland's spokeswoman said yesterday that the company's mobile charges had fallen by 46 per cent since 2000. The group's statement pointed out that the revenues it earned from customers in the last quarter of 2005 were down on the same period in 2004.

"When contrasted with the 9 per cent increase in usage across the base, this clearly demonstrates Vodafone Ireland's continued commitment to providing increased value to our customers," it said.

The Irish Times also reports that mortgage holders are paying around €119 million more than they should every year, the EBS Building Society said yesterday.

Head of mortgages at EBS, Dara Deering, said too few mortgage holders were shopping around for cheaper rates.

Some borrowers were not receiving the benefit of improved rates or products from their lenders, Ms Deering said, while others signed up for mortgages that were not competitive. She expects mortgage switching to grow this year, as competition drives down costs.

"We estimate there could be up to €3.7 billion switched, a 19 per cent increase on 2005."

She points out that taking a 20-year mortgage down to 3.5 per cent from 3.7 per cent would save the mortgage holder €6,206 over the loan's term.

Ms Deering based her calculations on the difference between the average variable rate and EBS's in 2004. The EBS standard variable rate (APR) is 3.6 per cent. Rates range from 3.55 per cent at AIB and Bank of Scotland to 3.9 per cent at First Active.

The Irish Examiner reports that the husband-and-wife team behind recruitment firm CPL Resources were nearly €20 million richer last night after selling part of their stake in the company.

Chief executive Anne Heraty yesterday sold 5m shares at €3.75 a share, netting €18.75m.

Ms Heraty and her husband Paul still remain the company's largest shareholders. Ms Heraty's remaining 15m shares are worth €60m.

In a statement to the stock market, CPL said that chairman John Hennessy sold 500,000 shares at €3.75, netting €1.87m.

Earlier yesterday, the company said it is planning to hit the acquisition trail this year.

While it claims no deal is imminent, it is more likely that any takeover focus will be in the area of temporary recruitment rather than agencies dealing with permanent job placements.

Results, issued yesterday, for the six months to the end of December showed the company's half-year revenues rise by 34% on the corresponding period in 2004 to €66.3m; pre-tax profits increase by 79% to €4.6m and earnings per share jump from 6c, a year earlier, to 10.6c.

Gross profit saw a year-on-year increase of 41% from €9.3m to €13.1m.

Net free income in the company's permanent placement business rose by 50% on a year-on-year basis aided by growth in the demand for IT, telecoms and finance professionals and its temporary fees increased by 33%, thanks mainly to the growth in demand for non-permanent staff in areas like administration, customer service, engineering, office management, healthcare, biotechnology and manufacturing.

CPL is viewed, first and foremost, as one of the country's leading temporary/contract staff agencies, placing around 20,000 workers in this manner every year. It also places approximately 9,000 permanent jobs per annum.

The company's executive search and selection consultancy division, BroadReach International, and its CPL Managed Services arm, which manages call centres and various administrative services for clients, also performed well during the period.

CPL chief executive Anne Heraty said: "We've had a good start to the second half and we've benefited hugely from the strong economy in Ireland over the last number of years.

"With 30% of our business being IT recruitment an area where we dominate in this country we're deliberately widening our capacity over a range of recruitment sectors, both permanent and temporary."

The Financial Times reports that hedge funds and other investors in North American distressed debt are hoping to benefit from a rise in corporate default rates but think the increase in 2007 will be more dramatic than in 2006, according to a new survey published on Wednesday.

But the specialists in troubled companies, sometimes known as vulture investors, are cautious on bond valuations, preferring loans secured on specific assets over unsecured bonds in 2006.

"This seems to imply that corporate bond investors are bracing for choppy waters by taking refuge in securities that offer greater downside protection," says Peter Corbell, managing director at Chanin Capital Partners.

The boutique investment bank, together with law firm Bingham McCutchen, commissioned the survey from Debtwire.

More than 100 hedge funds responded, along with investment bank trading desks and other market participants.

Among hedge fund strategies centred on North American markets, distressed debt investing was among the most successful last year, returning almost 10 per cent, according to the Hennessee Group.

More than two-thirds of respondents said junk-rated companies would find it harder to refinance debt this year than last, potentially creating more opportunities for distressed debt specialists.

Not surprisingly, 84 per cent of those surveyed expected to see fresh action in the automotive sector, where parts suppliers – as well as carmakers Ford and General Motors themselves – remain under pressure.

Other sectors of particular interest were packaging, where rising energy and raw materials costs have squeezed margins, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Overall, two-thirds of respondents expected the frequency of big bankruptcies – those involving more than $1bn of debt – to increase this year.

Mariarosa Verde of Fitch Ratings notes that an upturn in the rate of default among junk-rated companies was already evident in the second half of last year.

Her analysis also shows that more than 20 per cent of new junk bond issuance last year was rated between C and CCC, the low end of the rating spectrum – up from 10 per cent in 2003.

"Vulture investors can take heart from the past year's trends in new issue quality," says Martin Fridson, publisher of Distressed Debt Investor.

"A robust supply of future defaults appears well assured."

The new survey bears that out, with most respondents anticipating the high-yield default rate would rise from last year's level of about 2 per cent towards 4 per cent this year – with a sharper move above 4 per cent in 2007.

Distressed debt investors expect the most senior securities – secured bank debt, and subordinated but still secured second-lien loans – to offer the best opportunities this year, according to the survey.

But these less risky instruments carry potentially lower returns than unsecured debt, and the survey suggests investors are increasingly willing to make equity investments and use a range of hedging tools to compensate.

"Funds are willing to be flexible and creative in order to squeeze the most value out of a combination of positions in the same issuer," says Evan Flaschen of Bingham McCutchen.

Meanwhile, distressed debt investors appear ambivalent, or perhaps uncertain, about the significance for their business of the latest changes to the US bankruptcy code.

The survey suggests, however, that investors believe the changes are likely to speed up the restructuring process.

In addition, because the new code strengthens the position of suppliers to a bankrupt company, they believe recoveries on unsecured bonds – which compete for the same assets as suppliers – could decline.

The FT also reports that SAP, the world's largest business software group, issued a strong outlook for next year as it beat expectations for license sales during 2005, gaining market share from its rivals.

The German-based company forecast full-year 2006 product revenues to increase in a range of 13 per cent to 15 per cent compared to 2005, based on its expectation for software revenue growth in a range of 15 per cent to 17 per cent compared to 2005.

SAP also predicted the full-year 2006 pro forma operating margin, which excludes stock-based compensation and acquisition-related charges, would increase in a range of 0.5-1.0 percentage points compared to the previous year's 28.3 per cent.

In a further sign of confidence, the company said it was planning to hire around 3,500 extra staff this year, slightly fewer than the 3,668 it added to its headcount last year, while raising its share buyback programme to €500m from €417m in 2005.

The news sent shares 8.5 per cent higher to €159.43 in morning trade.

"We expect 2006 to be a cornerstone year for SAP characterised by a series of new product launches," said Henning Kagermann, chief executive.

Mr Kagermann described SAP's product pipeline as "one of the strongest in our history". He said new products would support SAP's Enterprise Services Architecture Roadmap, place more emphasis on the small business user.

"These products will be the foundation from which we expand from our current $30bn addressable market to a $70bn addressable market by 2010," he added.

The new product line is part of its arsenal to fight back against rival Oracle which is preparing an assault on SAP's core big business market.

The better outlook for 2006 followed a strong performance in 2005. The company reported software revenues of €2.78bn, an increase of 18 per cent compared to the same period in 2004 and exceeding its guidance of an increase in a range of 12 per cent to 14 per cent. This helped lift total revenues 13 per cent to €8.51bn.

With software revenues rising across the globe, SAP extended its market share to 62 per cent by the end of the fourth quarter - a gain of 2 per cent on the preceding quarter and 7 per cent on the same quarter in 2004.

In the US, Oracle's home turf, SAP took advantage of disruption at its rival which is reorganising after snapping up most of its smaller opposition in a $19bn shopping spree. SAP increased US market share to 47 per cent, a 10 per cent higher than a year ago.

"2005 was an excellent year for SAP...We continued to demonstrate that organic growth is a very effective way to achieve success in this industry, and that it benefits our customers, partners and shareholders," said Mr Kagermann.

Net income for 2005 was €1.5bn, or €4.83 per share, representing an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2004.

The New York Times reports that for Angelique Chappell, a former administrative assistant at Enron, it all now seems like a mirage.

There were the trips organized just for assistants, including one to California to visit a new chain of hotels where they would be booking reservations for their bosses. There was the time she won a company drawing for seats behind the dugout at a Houston Astros baseball game in a stadium then known as Enron Field. And, she recalls, there were the American Express gift cards that were handed out frequently to those who answered a trivia question.

"We may have been a little overcompensated, but we worked our tails off every single day," said Ms. Chappell, 33, an Army veteran who goes by Angie. "There was so much fun, so much camaraderie among us. At that time in my life I felt like I could do almost anything." But life took a jarring turn for Ms. Chappell, as it did for thousands of others among Enron's rank and file after the company's chaotic collapse into bankruptcy at the end of 2001. Four years of bouncing from job to job followed. Today, Ms. Chappell has finally found a secretarial job that might, sometime soon, even provide health and retirement benefits.

Her experience resembles that of most former Enron employees who had nothing to do with the fraud at the company, in contrast to the success enjoyed by those at the top who cashed out early and a comparative handful of high-ranking professionals who were able to parlay their status and skills into lucrative jobs at other energy companies. Few like Ms. Chappell have been able to restore the glitter of their jobs at Enron, a factor that still overlays the mood in Houston as the trial of Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the company's former chief executives, is set to get under way next week.

Some of the Enron diaspora have had to start their careers all over again. Karl Klicker, who lost a comfortable employee-training position at Enron with a six-figure salary, recently rejoined the Marine Corps at age 50, and is studying Arabic in hopes of going to Iraq.

Like Ms. Chappell, Mr. Klicker had been in the military, a not uncommon background for many of the people Enron hired. A self-described "base brat," he followed his father and grandfather into the Marines shortly after high school, eventually earning a doctorate in adult education while also serving as a Marine intelligence officer.

"I went from the top to the bottom to the top again," Mr. Klicker said.

In the months after Enron's collapse, Mr. Klicker said, he sent out about 400 job applications and had offers for only two interviews. A marathon runner, he said he had plenty of time - perhaps too much time - to think about Enron during the 100 to 200 miles he ran each month.

Of course, other companies have laid off large numbers of workers - Ford just announced on Monday that it would be eliminating 30,000 jobs over the next six years. But Enron's collapse not only unfolded swiftly, it also destroyed the livelihood and retirement savings of many employees who had believed the company symbolized the future course of the global economy.

"Enron was such an aggressive, complex entity at the avant-garde of many developments," said Richard I. Evans, director of the social psychology program at the University of Houston. "It was not just losing a job. It was losing an identity associated with power and innovation, producing trauma and sometimes grief."

For Ms. Chappell, the former Enron secretary, there have been plenty of tears. It took five months for her to find a job after Enron collapsed. By that time, she had adjusted her salary expectations downward after earning nearly $50,000 a year. About the time her unemployment benefits were about to run out in 2002, she found a part-time position in the Houston office of CMS Energy.

A contact at CMS suggested to Ms. Chappell that she should avoid discussing her time at Enron, given the general unease associated with the company's demise, particularly in Houston's energy circles. But Ms. Chappell, a talkative native of Southern California, did exactly the opposite.

"What was I going to do, ignore that time in my life?" Ms. Chappell said. She joked in her job interview, she said, about how fast she had gone from working for a respected company to one that had turned into a pauper - kind of a Cinderella tale in reverse.

But soon after she landed the job at CMS, company executives were implicated in a scandal involving trades, similar to some of the manipulations at Enron and other energy and telecommunications companies that exaggerated their revenue. Ms. Chappell helped downsize CMS's office in Houston, moving with a skeleton crew of two other employees to a less expensive location in suburban Sugarland, Tex., before eventually losing the job at the end of 2003.

Meanwhile, Ms. Chappell's husband, a native of Houston she had met while they were both in the Army in their 20's, found a new job as a firefighter earning less than $30,000 a year. That helped keep food on the table.

They have managed to keep the modest tract home they bought in Katy, Tex., a fast-growing distant suburb of Houston, where they live with their two sons, ages 12 and 9. Finances, though, remain extremely tight.

"I still have creditors calling me to pay certain bills," said Ms. Chappell. "I was mad at God for a while, but I got over it."

Ms. Chappell found temporary administrative work again in the spring of 2004 with a company that charters vessels for the oil and gas industry, but left that job for another temporary position at a mortgage company last October, cutting her commute to an hour from an hour and a half. It is a solid job, she says, with a salary approaching what she made at Enron - she declined to give the exact amount - and the possibility of benefits sometime soon.

As for Mr. Klicker, with no job in sight, he began painting murals, babysitting and writing about his thoughts on leadership strategies. He said he ate Ramen noodles regularly to cut down on expenses. He founded his own company to advise clients on management training and organizational psychology, but had trouble getting it off the ground.

Finally, last August, he decided to rejoin the Marines in a recall aimed at retired officers. The motivation, Mr. Klicker said, had less to do with his financial situation and more to do with a yearning to combat terror threats. He said he lost a friend in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, and still keeps his business card as a bookmark.

"A lot of Enron went through my mind when I was unemployed," said Mr. Klicker, now a captain in the Marine Corps. "But I find now, back in uniform, there are many things I learned at Enron about leadership - like how not to lead."

"Take away the corporate setting and the $2,000 wool blend suit and you see the real Ken Lay," Mr. Klicker said in a telephone interview from Virginia Beach, where he is now stationed.

These days, Mr. Klicker said he was happy training soldiers in leadership procedures and living in an oceanfront rental home during the winter months - "unaffordable in the summer," he said - where his 9-year-old daughter can visit him during school breaks. And despite being almost twice the age of some other Marine captains, Mr. Klicker hopes he has the chance for a tour of duty in Iraq.

"I keep my ear to the tracks for an opportunity," Mr. Klicker said. "Of course, I want to go. You never have to explain why as a marine."

Meanwhile, Ms. Chappell has little set aside for the future. She lost her $12,000 in retirement savings at Enron and has no 401(k). She had to scrimp recently to buy winter jackets for her sons and to take them to a movie.

But rather than relishing the opportunity to see Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling put on trial, Ms. Chappell said, she was hoping to avoid thinking about the past.

"I don't want to turn on the TV and see their faces," she said, her voice quivering with anger, as it sometimes does when she is reliving Enron's demise. "I mean, when is it going to be over? We live paycheck to paycheck and they're spending millions of dollars on their lawyers.

"Ken Lay should have known every nook and cranny of that company. I just cringe when I see his image."

In the weeks leading up to the company's bankruptcy filing, she was training for a different assignment, feeling somewhat in limbo in redeployment, as that status was called within Enron. So she did not hesitate to accept the suggestion of an Enron human resources employee that she accept a "temporary" layoff with a severance package.

Within days of leaving Enron in late November 2001, however, the company was essentially out of business, ending her hope of getting any severance pay. The whole experience, she says, will shape her outlook on life forever.

"I learned not to be loyal to anyone but my family," Ms. Chappell said. She said she still dreamed of advancing as she did at Enron, but that her aspirations were now more modest. She would like to finish her undergraduate degree, though she was not sure what her major would be; entering a new career path in her 30's, she said, would not be easy.

Ms. Chappell said she had thought of leaving Houston, moving to the Pacific Northwest, where she was stationed in the Army, or going to Iraq, where she hears contractors pay overtime-laden salaries into six figures. But the risks are great and doing so would take her away from her children. She has shelved that option.

Now she looks forward to a better life for her sons, hoping they will be able to attend a nearby university like Texas A&M, where she believes they will have the opportunity for an education that may allow them to view something like the Enron story from a higher perch than hers.

"I just don't want my sons to have to experience what I went through."

The NYT also reports that Federal prosecutors are investigating three lawyers at a prominent Dallas law firm, Jenkens & Gilchrist, in a widening of an investigation into questionable shelters that shielded billions of dollars from taxes, according to people briefed on the inquiry.