Denis O’Brien’s bid to host the 2031 Ryder Cup at his Camiral golf resort near Girona on the Costa Brava has to be reaching some manner of climax.
The US and European golf tours, who organise the event, generally like to make their booking arrangements eight years in advance, and certainly up to this summer it looked like O’Brien’s track was the odds-on favourite to succeed JP McManus’s Adare Manor as the host venue. But a spanner was thrown in the works during the summer when the local Catalan government knocked back O’Brien’s plans to build a third golf course on his resort at Caldes de Malavella.
O’Brien was initially looking to add 185 luxury villas to the development, along with the third course, but this was replaced by a plan for a third hotel, a clubhouse and holiday chalets. The plan would have expanded the resort by 150 hectares and encroached into agriculturally zoned land. There were also concerns over water usage — there are 92 golf courses across Catalonia — which were heightened during the summer drought.
The local officials still support the Ryder Cup bid, suggesting that two golf courses are quite enough, especially as one of those, the Stadium Course, is one of Europe’s top tracks.
HealthBeacon backers send out distress signals
The looming splat that is the listed medtech group HealthBeacon is not going to be pretty. The company, which raised €25 million in an IPO two years ago, will run out of money next month unless a rescue materialises or an examiner steps in. Poor old Tommy Kelly backed a real dog when buying a 5 per cent stake in the company when his Castlegate Investments family office decided to spend some of his estimated €500 million cash pile on the stock.
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Things looked so bright when Jim Joyce was out with his pitch deck raising money from early investors as chief executive of HealthBeacon. He managed to rope in serious money back then.
Michael Chadwick, the former Grafton Group boss, came in for a chunk as did Kieran Fox, who sold his food ingredients business Redbrook to Israeli buyers for €40 million in 2016. Donagh Barry of the Barry’s Tea dynasty also invested early alongside Bill McCabe’s Oyster and a wodge of hospital consultants.
HealthBeacon, which has developed a smart bin for disposing of home injections and a hodge-podge of vaguely related technology, looks dumpster-bound unless a deal can be done. Either way the equity is toast.
Steady Eddie has a solid plan for energy scheme
I hear that Eddie Kilbane, the data centre entrepreneur, is getting terribly excited about solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which could potentially be the answer to the global energy conundrum. Fuel cells convert the chemical energy stored in the fuel to electric and thermal energy (heat), without the need for combustion. Neat or what?
The technology was developed in space programmes but is used in many different applications these days, including data centres. Kilbane has hooked up with the US group Bloom Energy, which is expanding its SOFC platform into international markets, starting with Ireland.
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Kilbane headed up the data centre developer Dataplex. It pulled the plug on its Irish data centre projects after waiting more than 12 months for a decision on its power connection from EirGrid, the semi-state electricity grid operator. The decision was to turn it down.
More than 30 data centre projects have ground to a halt until at least 2028 as Ireland cannot build renewable energy generators fast enough to meet the needs of the industry and the requirements of the country at the same time. Kilbane may have the answer.
Hanrahan’s new gig after Handy is rather hush-hush
Oisin Hanrahan is in stealth mode. I hear that Hanrahan, who sold his $168 million-valued gig economy matcher-upper Handy to the US firm Angi in 2018, is up to something new. Hanrahan developed Handy as a way of connecting electricians, plumbers and handymen with jobs. The Dubliner went on to serve as chief executive of Angi until last year.
He helped develop a new concept of booking someone online to come to your home and assemble your latest Ikea flatpack purchase. Impressed? The markets weren’t and Angi’s stock is down about 90 per cent in the past five years. I gather Hanrahan is looking for specialised talent to join his secretive new venture. Given his previous form, something interesting is bubbling away.
Crowning glory for plastics firm
Niall Dunne’s wonderfully bonkers plastic-altering technology firm Polymateria is backed by none other than King Charles III.
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I contacted Dunne and his team a couple of times over the past fortnight but I guess they probably fear being beheaded should they spill the beans officially.
Charles visited Polymateria’s London laboratory a few years ago and was clearly wowed by the technology, which helps change plastic into a biodegradable substance.
Polymateria was set up by Dunne, a former Belvo schoolboy in Dublin. He has raised about €23 million this year to help commercialise Polymateria’s product, which decomposes over 12 months rather than the hundreds of years it takes for normal plastic to degrade.
His Majesty’s stake is below 1 per cent, so it’s not exactly a jewel in the crown, but, like any ESG investment, it might make him sleep better at night.
Dunne has recruited Marc Bolland, the former M&S boss, as chairman as he seeks to expand into new markets. Having a royal backer might open a few doors.
Kelly in EasyGo’s charging empire
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Conor Kelly’s Rubicon Capital Advisors is tearing up trees as the boutique deal shop continues to pull together transactions in the infrastructure space. Kelly, who used to run Scotia Capital’s global infrastructure investment business, has been involved in about $40 billion worth of transactions in the sector.
Rubicon recently advised Sacyr on the sale of its stakes in the N6 toll road between Galway and Ballinasloe to Bestinver. I hear Kelly and his team are spreading some of the love having backed EasyGo, which is developing a network of superfast electric car charging points around the country. EasyGo recently raised €15 million from investors to help build out the network.
Having a stack of grizzled infrastructure bankers on your cap table is a good start when trying to build out a new charging empire.
• Pat Jordan, who has morphed from a security fencing magnate with Siteserv to an aviation maintenance and engine reconditioning mogul with Eirtrade Aviation, has also gone into the tourism business. I’m told he backed Mark Duffy’s Heyday hostel in Ballina, Co Mayo, which has opened to rave reviews.
The 38-bed establishment is geared at people walking the Wild Atlantic Way.
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Jordan initially owned 60 per cent of the Heyday parent company but I believe that he’s bought out Duffy’s interests in recent months.
With tourism coming back with a bang after the Covid-19 pandemic, Jordan’s timing is spot on.
