Beware: Britains Bribery Act will have major implications for London-listed Irish companies

A well rounded article in the Irish Independent draws attention to the dangers ahead for London-listed Irish companies which include well known names like Tullow Oil, Kenmare Resources, Petroneft, Petroceltic and Petrel, and Glanbia (no evidence of wrongdoing against any of these).

Britains Bribery Act is due to come into force in April 2011 - giving little time for London-listed Irish companies to move to other exchanges. The Act carries a  new corporate offence of "failing to prevent bribery" whereby a  company can be liable where it fails to stop a bribe by an "associated person". The doors is wide open and includes employees agents, partners, intermediaries or subsidiaries. So if you want to ***k your competitor, get the cash out and hand it out with a few of your competitors business cards. Task done, tip off the authorities and sit back and relax.That'll do nicely. Then go in behind and do things the right way to pick up the vacated business opportunity.

How ridiculous business has become. WTO, EU, the US and more - all looking for ways to stymie business under the guise of opening up markets. How to make a payment under the desk, how to determine whether its necessary to oil the wheels and how to share rewards is as much fun and part of the game as is signing the contract.

Will it work? No. It will create more middle men and ultimately it will push up the cost of doing business. Instead of one well placed payment, everything will have to be in the open. More use of ‘advisers’ tax on any payment will have to be factored in making the payments higher. Because it will all be in the open we will increasingly see that more will want more. An Irish company doing business in developing countries will likely end up having to pay the president’s brothers because they see that their cousins are being employed as consultants or advisors. Then the president will also have to be paid because all his family are getting rich – and he costs more.

Some things are best left alone and the business success of Irish companies in difficult economies is not always down to history – but rather can sometimes be down to how well you know your friends and how to ensure they look after your interests alone. I expect we’ll see more Irish businesses avoiding London listings in years to come.

But all this is pure speculation, of course. It’s the luck of the Irish that wins the deals, as we all know!