Communicorp been granted approval by Bulgaria's communications regulator to complete the purchase of a 70% stake in sports broadcaster Radio Gong and a similar stake in Radio Retro, both of which are based in the Bulgarian capital So"a. The terms of the deal were not disclosed by Communicorp. Bulgarian media reports, however, suggest that the company paid around 3m in total.

O'Brien's "rm, which counts talk radio station Newstalk and Dublin's 98FM among its Irish interest, now has a controlling interest in three Bulgarian stations. In 2004 Communicorp paid just over 11m for Metromedia International, a company which operated radio stations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic. O'Brien's pan-European group now owns, controls or has substantial shareholdings in over 30 stations.

DERMOT DESMOND, JP McManus and John Magnier have added honey manufacturing to their diverse business interests through the £70m acquisition of The Rowse Honey Company in Britain.

Lydian Capital, an investment vehicle backed by the multimillionaire trio, is one of the investors in Wellness Foods, which has just sealed a deal with the honey company's founding family.

The Oxford-base Rowses began making honey in 1954. From a small start, managing a number of beehives, the business has grown into one of the largest honey makers in Britain and now counts supermarket groups Asda and Waitrose among its customers.

Wellness Foods, founded last year, will now add Rowse to its portfolio of health-food products. Health food is the latest in a string of investments McManus, Magnier and Desmond have been involved in in the UK ranging from Manchester United, which they sold to US billionaire Malcolm Glazer, to health centre chain Next Generation "tness.

PROVIDENCE RESOURCES is to undertake a major seismic survey of three gas fields in the Irish Sea and English Channel.

Gardline Geosurvey will carry out the surveys on the Pegasus, Ardmore and Hook Head fields starting next month.

Providence chief executive Tony O'Reilly Jr. said the surveys were "an important step in assessing Providence's asset development programme". "The results will allow us to better de"ne future work programmes, including speci"c drilling and development locations, " he said.

AFRICAN DIAMONDS, one of several exploration "rms headed by John Teeling, said that the second phase of drilling at its AK6 kimberlite site in the Orapa province of Botswana, which it is developing with De Beers, had yielded a better quality of diamonds than those extracted in its "rst phase. Analysts estimate that if successfully brought into operation as a diamond mine in 2008 the project could generate $25m in annual cash "ow.

EXPORTS rose 5% in July compared with the same month lsat year, according to "gures released Friday by the CSO. But Goodbody Stockbrokers' economist Dermot O'Leary pointed out that the total exports for the "rst six months of this year were only up 1.3%.

MARKETER OF THE YEAR
Marketing magazine is seeking nominees for its Marketer of the Year award. Last year's winner was Greg McAweeney, for introducing online bank RaboDirect to the Irish market.

We still don't thank him for the increasing ubiquity of the voice of Sean Moncrieff, but that's our problem.

More information and online nominations available at www. marketing. ie/moty. htm

CLARIFICATIONS
Last week TribuneBusiness mistakenly identi"ed Eugene Murtagh as a major shareholder in Smart Telecom. The article should have identi"ed the shareholder as Brendan Murtagh, his brother. We regret the error.

In addition, an article on page "ve should have identi"ed Enterprise Ireland's innovations matching website address as www. techsearch. ie.