The Irish Independent reports that Cork-based co-op SWS, which has branched out into waste management and wind farm operations, has become the subject of a bidding war which could mean the sale of the firm for over €100m before Christmas.

The sales process,being managed by Merrion Capital, will conclude by December 22.

The Irish Times reports that Dublin's five-star hotels cannot compete with top international hotels because they lack "real star quality", the founder of hotel review magazine Nota Bene has said.

Hotels in the capital have been poorly thought-out and suffer from pervasive cooking smells and "awful, jarring piped-in music", Anthony Lassman said.

Mr Lassman, who publishes the Nota Bene anonymous review of international hotels, restaurants and nightlife, was speaking at the Fáilte Ireland national tourism conference in Dublin yesterday.

"There is nothing fundamentally wrong with several of the hotels in Dublin, but they should be competing with hotels in the major cities around the world and nothing I have seen really stand out as having real star quality," he said

Two hotels had some five- star elements; the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge had excellent service and the original part of the Merrion Hotel had very fine Georgian architecture and a good manager, Mr Lassman said.

"These hotels do a lot of things well but they're not up there with the 90 per cent of achievers internationally. Star ratings can be very misleading, I don't see any reason why the Four Seasons and the Merrion couldn't become worthy of five stars, but at the moment they're just the best of what's available."

Dublin no longer had the excuse that it was too poor to have international-class hotels as there was a "huge surplus of money" and some "very wealthy people" in the city, he said.

"Surely there must be a place for hotels to match the quality of those in Paris, New York and Tokyo . . ."

Fáilte Ireland chief executive Shaun Quinn said the margins in the tourism industry were been "squeezed" more every year.

"The figures for 2006 are probably going to show record numbers of tourists, but revenue is not keeping pace with the growth in tourist numbers." Hotels needed to improve their service to visitors and try to offer a "more compelling product," he said.

"It's important to make efficiencies, to look at your costs and see if there is something that maybe isn't adding any value for the customer."

The Irish Times also reports that the Government should use the forthcoming Budget to dampen inflationary pressure in the economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) urged yesterday.

In its latest outlook for the global economy, the OECD has warned that strong consumption in Ireland will keep the rate of inflation here above the euro-zone average during the next two years.

According to forecasts contained in its latest Economic Review and Outlook, growth among the OECD's 30 members will be 2.5 per cent in 2007 - down 0.4 per cent on its May projection - and 2.7 per cent in 2008.

OECD chief economist Jean-Philippe Cotis said: "Rather than a major slowdown, what the world economy may be facing is a rebalancing of growth across OECD regions."

As economic growth in the US and Japan slowed, "a solid upswing may be underway" in the euro zone. But initially this rebalancing "would not be strong enough to prevent a mild and short-lived weakening in 2007 in the OECD area", he said.

In a country report on Ireland which accompanies the forecasts, the OECD predicts Ireland's economy will grow by 5.1 per cent this year and next, up fractionally on the 5 per cent rate projected last May, and by 4.5 per cent in 2008.

The report warns that Ireland's economic growth is being fuelled by strong household spending and could be inflationary. "Inflation is projected to remain above the euro area average . . . The Budget should prioritise spending items that alleviate bottlenecks in the economy such as investment in human and physical capital," it states.

The harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) for Ireland - an international measure of inflation which facilitates cross-country comparisons - is expected to grow by 2.8 per cent next year and by 3 per cent in 2008.

For the OECD as a whole, HICP inflation - which excludes the impact of interest rate rises on mortgage repayments - is projected to fall from 2.2 per cent in 2007 to 2.1 per cent in 2008.

As well as calling for a slowdown in the rate of current Government spending, the report calls on the Government to do more to reform the domestic energy market.

"Boosting competition in network industries, especially in the electricity and natural gas sectors, is becoming a matter of urgency as these sectors contribute disproportionately to inflation," it states.

Elsewhere, the OECD slashed its US forecast to 2.4 per cent in 2007 from May's 3.1 per cent. It raised the outlook for the euro zone but by just 0.1 points to 2.2 per cent.

Japan, the UK and Canada were among those downgraded, but the outlook for Germany and Italy improved.

The OECD advised the European Central Bank to raise interest rates further.

"The recovery now seems sufficiently robust to justify some additional withdrawal of monetary stimulus," according to the report.

The Irish Examiner reports that falling energy supplies and the threat posed to Ireland by declining oil stocks should be top of the political agenda for the next general election, said NTR chief executive Jim Barry, whose company is a major player in the alternative energy sector.

Speaking at the launch of the sixth international conference on Peak Oil, to be held in UCC on September 17-18, 2007, Mr Barry said: “I believe Ireland is sleep walking its way into an energy crisis. What goes for Europe goes quadruple for Ireland. We are at the end of a 3,0000 kilometre gas pipeline from Siberia ... you look out 20 years we have no sustainable sources of energy of any critical level.”

He added: “I think that with an election due in six months the electorate would be best served by politicians having a serious debate around this and related issues”

It is understood that Mr Barry’s company NTR, formerly National Toll Roads, is set to clinch a €600 million deal with the State for the purchase of the West-Link toll bridge in Dublin.

With a general election just six months away, the Government is reported to be poised to seal a deal with NTR. Some reports suggest the amount could be even higher than €600m.

Meanwhile, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, led by Dr Colin Campbell, had made the theme of next year’s conference in UCC “The eventual depletion of fossil fuels, especially oil, and the consequences of this depletion on society.”

Speakers at the launch of the conference in Dublin yesterday included Richard Hardman, director of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre and ASPO president Jeremy Gilbert.

Dr Campbell said that by 2020 at the very latest the globe will be consuming more oil and gas than is being found to replace it.

Mr Hardman said global consumption was running faster than forecast by the International Energy Association in the US.

It said daily consumption would hit 85 million barrels a day in 2010, it has hit that already.

World population is also set to grow consistently, adding continuously to global demand and by 2100 the global population could hit 100 billion, he said.

Mr Gilbert said: “Much of the best work on future oil supply has been done here in Ireland. Ironically, Ireland may well be one of the countries which will be most affected by oil and gas supply failing to meet demand.”

Holding the ASPO Conference in Ireland provides a great opportunity for our decision makers to become better informed and to begin developing strategies to deal with a frightening situation.”

The Financial Times reports financial markets remained gripped by uncertainty over the outlook for the dollar on Tuesday, even as Ben Bernanke appeared to head off talk of imminent US interest rate cuts by warning that inflation remained “uncomfortably high”.

The dollar strengthened briefly on the comments by the Federal Reserve chairman, but they failed to claim the markets, with currencies still volatile in later trading.

The euro hit a 20-month high against both the dollar and the yen, while the pound rose 0.5 per cent to $1.9480. That brought it close to peak of 1.9548 reached on December 2004, the highest level since sterling was ejected from Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.

Bonds were also unsettled, while equities slipped back in early trading, and the cost of buying insurance against credit risk increased.

Speaking in New York, Mr Bernanke reassured investors that the outlook for the US economy remained fair, and the slowdown to more moderate growth was proceeding largely as expected.

He said incoming data would determine “whether further policy action against inflation will be required”.

The speech follows days of jitters in financial markets, with investors betting that US economic weakness would force the Fed to cut interest rates next year, undermining the dollar.

Earlier in the day, fresh US data showed house sales inching up, but prices falling on one measure, with confidence weaker and a significant drop in durable goods orders.

While investors have been troubled by recent US data, however, Mr Bernanke said the slowdown “appears to be taking place roughly along the lines envisaged in the Federal Reserve’s July report”.

His message was reinforced by Hank Paulson, US Treasury Secretary, who told reporters in London the US economy was making a “successful transition” to a more sustainable rate of growth, and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which said the outlook for the world economy remained bright.

Releasing its twice-yearly outlook, the OECD said it saw signs of a smooth rebalancing of global economic growth, with faster growth in Europe offsetting much of the slowdown in the US.

Jean-Philippe Cotis, the OECD’s chief economist, said there were signs that the growth of global trade imbalances had now stopped, raising the chances of a benign outcome.

Attributing the recent fall in the dollar to signs of economic strength in Europe and elsewhere, he added: “Even a smooth adjustment of imbalances has to start somewhere...we are not yet in a position where the depreciation of the dollar suggests people are fleeing the US.”

The FT reports that the world’s development banks may have to water down the social and environmental conditions they attach to loans in Africa and elsewhere because they are being undercut by less scrupulous Chinese lenders, the European Investment Bank said on Tuesday.

Philippe Maystadt, the EIB’s president, said banks like his were operating in competition with Chinese lenders anxious to extend Beijing’s influence across the world.

“The competition of the Chinese banks is clear,” said Mr Maystadt, whose European Union-backed bank is the world’s biggest multilateral lender. “They don’t bother about social or human rights conditions.”

Mr Maystadt claims Chinese banks have snatched projects from under the EIB’s nose in Asia and Africa, after offering to undercut the conditions it imposed on labour standards and environmental protection.

“The international finance community needs to consider this problem,” Mr Maystadt said. “We have to think about the degree of conditionality we want to impose.”

Mr Maystadt says there should be a thorough debate with other development banks, including the World Bank, to develop a common approach and to avoid what he called “excessive” conditions.

The World Bank has built a reputation for strict enforcement of human rights, social and environmental conditions, particularly in the extractive industries, and non-governmental organisations are likely to be highly critical of any dilution of current “conditionality”.

Mr Maystadt was speaking at an EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels, where the EIB was given a lending mandate of up to €27.8bn ($36.6bn) over the next seven years to fund projects outside the 25-member club. 

The bank, which has an annual turnover of €45bn, mainly operates inside the Union and funds projects around the world that meet EU objectives and have significant European involvement.

Mr Maystadt said it was vital the EIB and World Bank continued to attach conditions to loans, which he said underpinned national reform efforts in the beneficiary country.

He said he had recently returned from the sub-Saharan country of Mali where the finance minister had urged him to apply strict conditions on a proposed loan.

But Mr Maystadt fears that unless the conditions are set at a realistic level, project managers in Asia, Africa and elsewhere will turn to other sources of financing without such strings attached. “It’s clear China is trying to build closer links with Africa and build privileged access to resources on this continent,” he said.

The New York Times reports that when Toyota named Katsuaki Watanabe as its new president last year, many assumed he would be a caretaker chief executive, steering the giant automaker with a steady hand and a minimum of surprises until Akio Toyoda, the 50-year-old great-grandson of the company’s founder, took charge.

The low-key approach of Mr. Watanabe — who rose up through the ranks as a cost-cutting manager of suppliers — seemed the safest bet, particularly since the company already was becoming a political target for taking market share at the expense of other automakers like Ford Motor and General Motors.

The board’s choice of Mr. Watanabe was also widely seen as a move to put someone in charge who could streamline the company and eliminate waste after a decade of rapid expansion.

But Mr. Watanabe is proving that first impressions can be misleading.

Texans found that out earlier this month, when Mr. Watanabe, clad in a conservative gray suit, jumped behind the wheel of a blue Tundra full-size pickup that had just rolled off the line at Toyota’s new assembly plant here. To the roar of assembled plant workers and dozens of guests, Mr. Watanabe leaned on the horn and leaned out the window, waving and smiling.

A few minutes later, Mr. Watanabe found himself enveloped in a hug from the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, who enthusiastically violated the “no touching” rule of Japanese business etiquette, unable to control his delight that the $1.2 billion plant had finally opened in his state.

To his credit, Mr. Watanabe endured the embrace with a smile. And while he will never have a Texas-size personality, Mr. Watanabe, through his deeds as much as his words, has been raising his profile, stepping out as the leader of a company that may soon supplant General Motors as the world’s biggest automaker.

“Many assumed he would be a weak transitional player,” said Takaki Nakanishi, an analyst in Tokyo for J. P. Morgan Securities. “But he has surprised everyone.”

Even so, Mr. Watanabe remains the least-known Toyota president in years. After a year on the job, he is still less well known than either of his two predecessors: Hiroshi Okuda, known for his political savvy, and Fujio Cho, whose manufacturing expertise and warm personality made him a legend in Kentucky, where he was the first manager of its first American plant in Georgetown.

And Mr. Watanabe generally has shown little interest in the kind of appearances required of other automotive chieftains. He skipped this year’s Detroit auto show and attended only a reception at the Paris show in September.

But he has made his presence felt in other ways. Mr. Watanabe has bought stakes in two Toyota rivals, moves intended to help increase its sales, for example.

He has directed an effort to rethink how the company develops its vehicles and, most dramatically, he has ordered the company to find and fix the reasons why Toyota suffered an unusual spate of recalls during the last year. Mr. Watanabe made international headlines when he bowed low at a news conference in July in an apology for the errors.

His actions have helped counter the conventional wisdom that Mr. Watanabe, 64, would serve as little more than a seat warmer until Mr. Toyoda’s ascension. No one at Toyota would talk about when that might occur, but Mr. Toyoda, who has run Toyota’s Web business as well as its operations in China, was promoted last year to executive vice president, a title from which he could easily move to the top rung.

In some quarters, Mr. Watanabe is still having trouble shaking his reputation as a placeholder chief executive.

“Mr. Watanabe is a transitional C.E.O., standing in before Mr. Toyoda can take the helm,” said Hirofumi Yokoi, a former Toyota accountant who is now an analyst at CSM Worldwide, an auto market research company. “Mr. Watanabe will be easy to replace when the time comes.”

Mr. Watanabe’s biggest challenge will be to “keep Toyota from losing its soul” as a company focused on quality as it continues its breakneck expansion, said James P. Womack, an author and manufacturing expert.

Mr. Watanabe did not waste time this spring when its quality came under attack. His symbolic apology, accompanied by a vow to find the root cause for the defects, distressed Toyota sales executives in the United States, who felt it portrayed too groveling an image, said a senior official in Toyota’s North American operations, who insisted on anonymity because he was second-guessing his company’s decision.

Yet, Mr. Watanabe’s lesser-noticed actions may turn out to be just as important. Over the last year, Toyota, which has fended off numerous merger suggestions through the years, has bought stakes in Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent of Subaru, and Isuzu, a maker of trucks and sport utilities.

In both cases, Toyota appeared to be lending a hand to G.M., which has been selling off its ventures in a bid to raise cash.

But in the long-term, the moves may help Toyota more. The Subaru deal gives Toyota more engineers, plus half a factory in Indiana, where it will begin building 100,000 Camrys a year in 2007.

In the case of Isuzu, Toyota gains expertise in diesel engines and four-wheel-drive vehicles, enabling it to better compete with American and European companies, which are well ahead in both areas, Mr. Watanabe said.

What is attracting more attention at the moment, at least, is the Tundra, the biggest Toyota pickup yet.

Speaking to a throng of Japanese and American reporters here, Mr. Watanabe said the company’s goal was not to cause grief for struggling Detroit companies but to win over customers who already own Toyota cars but also own trucks from G.M. or Ford.

A classical music enthusiast who sang in a men’s choir in college, Mr. Watanabe never held the high profile jobs in sales, finance or manufacturing that have propelled other Toyota executives to the top.

His first job, when he joined the company in 1964, was in the personnel division, where he was in charge of employee cafeterias.

Instead, his rise came on the administrative side, particularly in purchasing, which grew in importance as Toyota expanded in North America, Europe and Asia. In order to eliminate duplication with Japan, Toyota began a cost-cutting program called CCC21, which stands for Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21st Century.

As a result, the automaker has saved about $10 billion on parts purchases this decade by pushing its parts suppliers, many of which are Toyota subsidiaries or partners, to cut prices and reduce complexity.

Mr. Watanabe also gave business to outside companies, sometimes favoring them over Japanese suppliers. Toyota started buying steel from Posco of South Korea, and it gave more business to the Delphi Corporation, the biggest parts maker in the United States. (Mr. Watanabe, wanting to reduce his own costs, has been known to gently chide underlings who book him in lavish hotel suites.)

But the number of recalls doubled in the United States in 2005 and rose again this year. Although many of the recalled cars were built in the early 1990s, the defects also affected the hybrid Prius.

Mr. Watanabe addressed that crisis in part by urging managers at a global meeting, held before his public apology this summer, to search for answers.

In Texas, he said he was confident they would find solutions. “One by one, we are going to identify the root cause of those problems,” Mr. Watanabe said.

He spent most of a two-day visit to San Antonio indoors. He walked the new truck factory and scouted out many of the plants that 21 suppliers had built nearby, many of whom he knew from his purchasing days.

He quizzed newly hired auto workers as well as plant managers, asking about problems the new factory was facing, said Gary Convis, senior vice president of Toyota’s North American manufacturing.

He said he found Mr. Watanabe’s energy intimidating. “I had a hard time keeping up,” Mr. Convis said. “He really knows what he’s looking at.”

Mr. Watanabe wrapped up the day by dining with managers from the parts factories, not local officials.

Toyota will soon decide whether to build new factories in North America, Asia and Europe, but Mr. Watanabe was careful not to show his hand.

Besides building factories, Mr. Watanabe faces another challenge, analysts said — turning out more hit vehicles, especially as G.M. and Ford are revving up their own lineups with new sport utilities, crossover vehicles and small cars.

But on that front, too, Mr. Watanabe has managed to make an impression.

Toyota generated buzz at the New York auto show last April with its most expensive version yet of the Lexus LS luxury sedan. And at the Paris auto show, a throng of onlookers, including Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan, gathered to see Toyota’s new European Corolla.

To help his cause, Mr. Watanabe can also count on new salesmen he deputized in Texas. They include Representative Henry Bonilla, who said to cheering Toyota workers as Mr. Watanabe looked on: “Let us now embrace Toyota.”

Unlike the governor, however, Mr. Bonilla did not proceed to embrace Mr. Watanabe.

The NYT also reports that an Irish educational software company, the Riverdeep Group, was close to a deal last night to acquire the textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin for about $3.5 billion, including debt, people involved in the negotiations said.

The deal is expected to be announced as early as today, these people said.

Houghton Mifflin, which is based in Boston, is owned by three private equity firms: Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group. The firms bought Houghton Mifflin from Vivendi in 2002 for about $1.7 billion.

Houghton Mifflin, which has published well-known books like “Curious George” and “The Lord of the Rings” but has since become solely a textbook publisher, has had several owners in the last decade.

A year before the private equity firms bought Houghton Mifflin, Vivendi acquired it for $1.7 billion during a shopping spree to transform itself from a water treatment company into a media conglomerate; much of Vivendi has since been dismantled.

A merger of Houghton Mifflin and Riverdeep is expected to help the combined company compete against rivals like McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Several other textbook publishers have recently merged or are up for sale: Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons; Thomson Learning is on the block; and Wolters Kluwer’s education business may also be sold soon.

Talks between Houghton Mifflin and Riverdeep have gone on for months, people involved said. Riverdeep will create a new company and merge itself and Houghton Mifflin into the business. Riverdeep, which is half the size of Houghton Mifflin, is expected to take on significant debt to finance the deal.

Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital both own 40 percent of Houghton Mifflin, while Blackstone owns the remaining 20 percent.