Mr Pat Gardiner, a former cable jointer from Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, is poised to become a wealthy man in a few months, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter

The 47-year-old founder and chief executive of Dublin-based engineering firm TE Services is in the final stages of talks to sell his company to the British utility firm AWG. Barring any last-minute hiccups, he looks set to become the latest member of Ireland's rich list later this year.

"If everything goes OK, we will be bought over," says Mr Gardiner. "Although, we are certainly not desperate to sell."

With an optimism based on a five-year winning streak that has seen his engineering firm grow revenues from €100,000 in 1999 to €39 million in the 12 months to the end of July 2004, he is surprisingly frank about his intentions.

The award of a four-year engineering contract from British Telecom, worth in excess of €25 million per year, will clearly strengthen his hand in the forthcoming sale negotiations.

"We have won two contracts with British Telecom in the last month. One of these is a four-year build contract worth €18 million per year. The other is a reactive contract that should generate about €7-10 million," he says.

"The contracts mean that we will have to create about 110 new jobs in the UK by Christmas. These people will be involved in building British Telecom's '21st century network project' and helping the firm to cope with faults on its network."

TE Services, whose full name is Telecom Engineering Services, has grown quickly to become Ireland's biggest network maintenance and construction company. Set up by Mr Gardiner and three former Eircom employees in 1999, it employs more than 500 people in the Republic and Britain. About 250 of these staff are based in Ireland and, by next year, the firm's total workforce will grow to 700 people, according to its business plan.

Industry sources estimate TE Services could be worth up to €12 million given its British Telecom deal and the emergence of a potential rival bidder - British firm McAlpines - for TE Services earlier in the summer. McAlpines has talked to TE Services, although the Irish firm is now in exclusive discussions with AWG.

Mr Gardiner's career before founding TE Services was spent working for Eircom, initially as a jointer and cable splicer, before moving up the ranks to join management and subsequently to specialise in quality assurance.

"Eircom then gave me the opportunity to move to the UK and I moved there lock, stock and barrel with my family in the mid 1980s.

"My job enabled me to build up extensive connections with British Telecom, which have proved useful for TE Services in winning business," says Mr Gardiner, who lives in Kent with his wife and three children.

But his big break came in 1998-2000, when Eircom decided to shut its British subsidiary and outsource its network maintenance and construction division. Under pressure from shareholders and the regulator, the former State firm was looking at ways to reduce its workforce and cut costs. TE Services decided to tender for these parts of its business and simultaneously explore how it could outsource its own staff to a new player.

The result was a massive shot in the arm for Mr Gardiner's start-up firm, which at the time employed just 30 employees.

Eircom decided to award a hugely lucrative network construction and maintenance contract to Mr Gardiner's firm and the Communications Workers Union facilitated the transfer of some of its members to the new entity under Eircom's voluntary redundancy scheme.

As part of the deal, Eircom took a 35 per cent stake in TE Services, the firm that Mr Gardiner had registered in Jersey for tax purposes. Mr Gardiner says he now owns just under 30 per cent. The rest of the shares are split between the other three founders: Mr Liam Minehane; Mr Brian Galvin; Mr John Minogue; and a few other individuals.

"One of the biggest advantages we had was that we kept the name TE Services, which was the one Eircom used in Britain, so when we rang up British Telecom no one really knew things had changed," says Mr Gardiner.

Eircom's close relationship with TE Services is underlined by the presence of Eircom's head of networks, Mr Herb Hribar, on the TE Services board. And the union is represented by executive member Mr Gerry Ruane.

Following Eircom's intervention, TE Services expanded quickly and has added new customers such as Vodafone, Smart Telecom and eNet - the firm chosen by the State to manage its regional fibre networks. It is also expanding into continental Europe and recently held talks with Spanish operator Telefónica and Maltese telecoms operator Maltacom about potential business, says Mr Gardiner.

Despite the rapid success, there have been challenges in the first five years, says Mr Gardiner.

Eircom's influence in the engineering firm enraged TE Services' rivals in the network construction business, leading to claims that Eircom had awarded contracts on the strength of its relationship with the firm rather than on pure commercial terms.

The Competition Authority set up an investigation into the relationship between Eircom and TE Services and the tendering process for network build projects last year. The authority discontinued its investigation without taking any action.

However, at least one firm, Network Splicing, has filed court papers against Eircom and threatened to sue the company because of the way it tendered for business.

Mr Gardiner rejects the numerous allegations made by his rivals as sour grapes and says his business has already been turned upside down by the extensive competition inquiry.

"We had to compete by offering market rates," he says. "We took a huge risk getting the firm started. I invested my whole redundancy package and put my house into the venture and had to tender for any work we won."

With talks between AWG and TE Services ongoing, Mr Gardiner is clearly hoping that any controversy is behind him and he can look forward to a large cheque arriving sometime soon.