It’s all go in the border counties these days, with a(nother) campaign to muster local support for Seán Quinn gathering momentum.
A recent public meeting in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, drew more than 500 attendees. And a petition calling on finance minister Michael Noonan to approve a revised Quinn family proposal for the insurer found its way hither and yon, around the local GAA clubs and even to Mass last Sunday. “Save our jobs, save our communities,” it implores.
The Quinns are promising that if they get to rescue Quinn Insurance they will create 1,800 jobs in three years, most of them local. And fear not, readers and regulator: Kevin Lunney, a Quinn Group director, and its usual voice, said a new independent board would be appointed and the family would take a “back seat”. The family proposes that creditors would remove contingent guarantees in Quinn Insurance from group security for a temporary stake in the insurer, currently in administration. The Quinns, who owe the state around €2.34 billion from Anglo Irish Bank gambling, would cut the capital requirement to rescue the insurer to €200m by putting in personal assets.
A deal would also involve the tiny matter of a €500m state investment through Allied Irish Banks or Bank of Ireland.
Interestingly, I hear Paul Dixon, formerly a director of One51, is now crunching numbers at the Quinn Group. Dixon quit One51 last year after a dust-up with Philip Lynch, its beleaguered boss. He certainly likes a challenge . . .
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Kelly pain spreads
Some rather prominent investors emerge among the slew affected by the National Asset Management Agency’s highly publicised crackdown on the Kelly family.
Sean Lyne, the well-known Co Clare hotelier who also co-founded The Clare People newspaper with Domhnal Slattery of Claret Capital, owns 50% of the Clarion Liffey Valley hotel, which is now in receivership. Nama has appointed Kieran Wallace of KPMG as receiver to Lyne’s Frontline Asset Management and a subsidiary.
Paddy Kelly, the developer, and Liam, his brother, own 17% of the Liffey Valley property. Also at the frontline of the sudden Nama sweep, however, is the successful serial technology entrepreneur and Oyster Capital backer Bill McCabe, who owns 33% of the property and is unlikely to be too happy about how this particular pearl turned out.
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Garrett Kelleher probably has bigger worries, such as the $77m (€54.6m) hole he dug for the Chicago Spire residential block he cannot afford to build, but losses keep mounting at St Patrick’s Athletic, his football club. Pat’s lost €238,000 last year, with accumulated losses of €3.1m. Its lender, Invesco (UK), is owed €1.5m. Accounts show the developer was paid €5,500 rent for player accommodation, down from €14,000 in 2009. But he’ll have more time to focus on the footie now: he has resigned as a director of Dolmen, the broker.
Dragon Niall retreats to his lair
Niall O’Farrell, the owner of the Blacktie formal wear hire chain and star of RTE’s Dragons’ Den, is now taking a rather lower-profile approach to his business affairs.
O’Farrell has just re-registered the company behind Blacktie as unlimited. The restructuring of his business includes a share allotment to Carana Holdings, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Latest accounts for the dragon’s Irish Clothiers Holdings showed a loss of nearly €2.7m for the 12 months to June 2009, on turnover of €8.1m. On top of that, it booked a €900,000 writedown on property, bringing the total loss to €3.6m. O’Farrell commented that the company would make a “strong, solid profit” when that financial year closed in June 2010.
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Atypically media-shy, the dragon didn’t return a call.
Show goes on without AIB cash
One innocent victim of the banking crisis is the Street Performance World Championships, the excellent — and free — family event that takes place in Dublin, Cork and Portlaoise in June.
Allied Irish Banks is pulling its sponsorship of the event to conserve cash, part of its bid to raise the €17 billion or so of capital it requires. They have had quite enough juggling down at Bankcentre.
In the best showbiz traditions, the impresarios Mark Duckenfield and Conor McCarthy are ploughing ahead with this year’s event while still searching for a new headline backer.
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A centrepiece of the entertainment will be a mass “Where’s Wally?” flash gathering, where the public will be invited to dress as the children’s book character. Plenty of wallies in Irish banking still, we’d venture.