New EU tariffs on banana imports will cost the company an estimated 40m this year, although chairman Carl McCann says it is "too early to accurately assess the full effect".

Fyffes will also have to dig deep to pay the huge legal bills, estimated at 18m- 20m, arising from its ill-fated attempt to pin charges of insider dealing on former director Jim Flavin.

"The expectation is for a substantial fall in profits in the current year, " says John O'Reilly of Davy Stockbrokers.

The only upside for investors is the company's plans to spin off 25 properties, worth 200m, into a separate entity, Bluestone Properties, to be listed on the AIM in London and Dublin's IEX.

Fyffes will own 40% of the property offshoot with the remainder placed in the hands of the company's shareholders.

Details of the proposed de-merger will be posted to shareholders at the end of the month and they will be asked to rubber stamp the deal at an extraordinary general meeting in April.

The figures released on Friday showed that while, sales climbed 11% in 2005 to 2.2bn, pre-tax profits jumped 28% to 106m.

A TURBULENT WEEK FOR ELAN SHARES LAST week was a topsyturvy one for Elan with negative newsflow sending the stock on a downward spiral.

The stock took a dive on Tuesday when US broker Piper Jaffray said that multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri may be of limited use if reintroduced to the market.

A doctor survey by the brokerage found that only 10% of them will prescribe the drug for patients and that will be mostly for people who have failed to see their condition improve after using other treatments. The following day further negative news sent the stock sinking lower.

University of Texas neurologists found that the drug depleted Tysabri users' immune system to levels found in HIV-infected patients.

That research has not yet been accepted for peer review publication. In what turned out to be a busy week, the next day Bloomberg carried a piece quoting a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who believes the drug will not receive approval.

On Friday, the Lancet medical journal published a report by two researchers, one of whom said that the risks of Tysabri "far outweigh the benefits".

Regulators from the Food and Drug Administration meet for two days this week to discuss Tysabri and whether it should be reintroduced to the market, and if so, who should be able to receive it. Trading in Elan shares will be suspended while the FDA review panel meets on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is finally make or break time for the drug.

UK PROPERTY GAINS SET TO PLATEAU BRITISH Land chief executive Stephen Hester believes returns from commercial property in Britain are about to plateau.

"I hope this will lead to a happy ending. I don't believe real estate markets have gone too far, but the levels of increases we have seen in the last few years are mathematically unsustainable, " he said.

British Land, which developed the St. Stephen's Green Centre in Dublin, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of strong capital growth and heady rent yields in the sector over recent years.

Last year alone, according to accounts published by the company last week, it saw its net asset value rise by over 22%.

Its net assets per share, meanwhile, a key measure for quoted property firms, were up almost 11% over the first three months of the year.

Commenting on the results, though, Hester sounded a word of caution which will surely resonate with those Irish investors who have been piling into British commercial property of late. Hester believes the party could be nearly over. "The last few years for real estate have been reminiscent of Cinderella going to the ball, " he said.

NCB COMES OUT ON TOP FOR STOCK ACCURACY DUBLIN'S stock tippers got their copies marked last week with the publication of new research measuring the accuracy of their market calls.

Paul Meade of NCB took top honours in the mid-cap category, while Joe Gill of Goodbody got a special mention for his work on Irish Continental as did Brid White of Merrion for calling it correctly on Waterford Wedgwood.

Compiled by UK-based AQ Research, the European Small Caps Research Yearbook attempts to weed out stock tips where share prices genuinely moved ahead or behind the market from movements that would have happened anyway because of wider trends in the market.

On this score, NCB's analysts, led by Meade, came out on top. Goodbody was commended for predicting stocks that would trail the market ICG, CNG, Donegal Creameries and Iona.