Dermot Desmond has made an awful lot of money from his various investments and there is no doubt that whatever investment opportunity he looks at is studied closely by those who believe Mr Desmond is the man with the Midas touch.
Most of Mr Desmond's investments - NCB, Esat Digifone, London City Airport, Golden Vale (twice) and various technology deals - have been hugely successful.
But he doesn't always have the golden touch and his investments in Greencore and Unidare are two that are looking pretty sickly at the moment.
But Mr Desmond is nothing if not determined, judging by his decision to buy out his partner in the Unidare investment, financier Pierce Casey.
Mr Casey and Mr Desmond had equal shares in Beechworth International, a vehicle that built up a 26.6 per cent stake in Unidare over the past two years.
Separately, Mr Desmond's IIU investment company has a 2.38 per cent stake in Unidare, so buying out Mr Casey means that Mr Desmond now controls 29 per cent of the company.
Pierce Casey has never explained the rationale for his investment in Unidare, but if he sold his half-share in Beechworth to Mr Desmond for its current value in Unidare shares then he would have got less than €3 million (£2.4 million).
Beechworth is thought to have paid in the order of €12 million for its Unidare shares, of which Mr Casey would have had to put up half.
Pierce Casey might have decided to bail out of Unidare at a loss, but Mr Desmond - for reasons only he knows - has shown that he intends to stay in the company, which has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years and whose shares are now trading at five-year lows.
Mr Casey is not the only one to have suffered a hefty loss from their involvement; one of Northern Ireland's richest businessmen, John McGuckian, has a 9 per cent stake that he bought at well over the current price.
Dermot Desmond obviously has opinions on how Unidare should be run.
Together with Pierce Casey he tried and failed to block a $60 million (€65.5 million) acquisition in the US - but only after his head honcho in IIU, Michael Walsh, delivered a withering attack on the Unidare board at the extraordinary general meeting to approve that deal.
The man with the Midas touch is not known for throwing good money after bad, so we will watch future developments at Unidare with great interest.
The Unidare board - which has presided over the dismal performance of the company in recent years - will also no doubt be keeping an eye on Mr Desmond.
