Shipping group Irish Continental has produced an impressive set of half year results, with their seasonal loss in the first half down from £3.17 million to £1.94 million.

The results would have been substantially better were it not for a severe setback at the container shipping group Bell Lines, where ICG has a 25 per cent stake. Bell had losses of £2.6 million in the first half of the year compared to a £1.3 million profit in the first half of 1995, and ICG's share of those losses was £663,000. Page 2