It was a year of contrasting fortunes for Ireland's business elite, with capital gains rubbing shoulders with capital pains. Arthur Beesley looks at winners and losers in 2005
Top of the pile this year was DCC boss Jim Flavin, who was victor in the momentous "insider-dealing" case taken against him by Fyffes. DCC may yet face a big tax bill on the €85 million profit it took from the disputed sale of its Fyffes shares in 2000, but Ms Justice Laffoy ruled decisively that the transactions themselves were lawful. It was on this point that Flavin claimed his vindication.
There was not a scintilla of vindication in the ruling for Fyffes, whose chairman Carl McCann indulged in gross under-statement when he conceded he was "a little bit disappointed" with the outcome. With nothing to show for their 87 days in the High Court but the prospect of a multi-million-euro legal bill, the entire affair can now be seen as an expensive disaster for Fyffes and the McCann family. Accustomed to success, they go down as the biggest losers of 2005.
Another well-known business family fared better in 2005. Senator Feargal Quinn and his clan made no less than €450 million when they sold the Superquinn chain to Select Retail Holdings, a consortium backed by financier Simon Cantrell, developers Bernard McNamara and Gerry O'Reilly, property consultants David Courtney and Bernard Doyle and tax consultant Kieran Ryan. For this élite group of investors, the coup de grace was the recruitment of London-based retail guru Simon Burke, of Hamley's fame, to chair the chain.
A Dubliner, Burke returned to his home town just as a couple of other prominent figures made the move over the Irish Sea in the opposite direction. Former Aer Lingus chief Willie Walsh took the top job at British Airways after annoying the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern with his plan to take the State airline private. And Dr John Fingleton left the Government in a fix when he was selected as chief executive of Britain's Office of Fair Trade only weeks after Mícheál Martin reappointed him as chairman of the Competition Authority for five years.
If the Superquinn acquisition marked the triumph of the property class as the new royalty in Irish business, the high king in 2005 was developer Seán Dunne who paid a grand total of €379 million for the three Jurys Doyle hotels in Ballsbridge. Dunne's plan for a big apartment complex on the site is subject to planning approval. So while the developer won plaudits for his chutzpah, the real risk is being borne by Ulster Bank, which put money up for the deal.
Jurys Doyle took a hefty €58 million per acre from Dunne, but that was surpassed in spades by another developer, Ray Grehan, who paid almost €84 million per acre for the 2.05 acres that house the former UCD Veterinary College next to the hotel sites.
Meanwhile, the prolonged takeover saga at Jurys Doyle produced a clear winner in the form of JDH Acquisitions - the vehicle controlled by Bernie Gallagher, Eileen Monahan and Ann Roche of the Doyle family, the Beatty family and Elizabeth Nelson - and losers in Gresham group owners Bryan Cullen, David Coleman and JJ Murphy, whose Precinct consortium enlisted the support of billionaire financiers David and Simon Reuben in their unsuccessful attempt to take the hotel chain private.
In the property scene generally, Irish money flooded into the international real estate with a series of megadeals in Britain, the US and Europe. In Britain alone, Galway investors Mike McDonagh and Tim Bohan spent almost £272 million (€398 million) on office blocks in London, Bracknell and Bath; Dublin solicitor Brian O'Donnell spent £250 million on two office blocks in London's docklands; and Derek Quinlan's vehicle Quinlan Private paid £530 million for a retail site in Knightsbridge.
Meanwhile, Irish Ferries boss Eamon Rothwell won few friends with a swingeing restructuring plan in which 540 seafarers were given the stark choice of redundancy or greatly reduced terms. Ibec struggled to defend the company's actions.
The biggest corporate deal of the year was Jefferson Smurfit's €4.5 billion purchase of its Dutch rival Kappa Packaging, a complex transaction that marked a significant coup for chief executive Gary McGann. In addition, Smurfit chairman Dr Michael Smurfit and developer Gerry Gannon agreed buy the K Club golf resort and a defunct paper mill for €115 million.
Other notable deals included Kingspan's €98 million purchase of Century Homes, a transaction worth more than €31 million to Century chief executive Gerry McCaughey. Landsbanki's unexpected €55 million takeover of Merrion Capital will yield at least €31 million to Merrion founder John Conroy and six of his colleagues.
Non-deal of the year was Swisscom's abortive approach for Eircom, whose board, chaired by Sir Anthony O'Reilly, went so far as to grant exclusive access to its books before the Swiss government called the process off. The telco must now concentrate on the integration of the Meteor mobile business that Eircom bought for €420 million.
A winner in telecoms was Smart Telecom, which raised €28.35 million from Seán Quinn to part-fund development of its 3G mobile network. A loser was the industry regulator, ComReg, which faces a legal bill estimated at €5 million following two cases in which it failed to defend appeals its decisions.
While Sir Anthony faced renewed difficulties in 2005 at Waterford Wedgwood, the year was good for some of wealthiest figures in Irish business. John Magnier and JP McManus took a profit of €125 million when they sold their Manchester United share to US tycoon Malcolm Glazer, whose takeover of the famous club seemed to coincide with a dip in its fortunes on the field.
Erstwhile Man Utd star Roy Keane found his way to Glasgow Celtic, whose owner Dermot Desmond is receiving €13 million for his Unidare shares in the wind-up of that company. Mr Desmond was also in the news for attacking the payments to politicians tribunal and its chairman Mr Justice Moriarty over its the four-year inquiry into the award of the second mobile phone licence.
Esat founder Denis O'Brien also attacked the tribunal and Mr Moriarty over phone licence inquiry. O'Brien became deputy governor of the Bank of Ireland during the year.
Elsewhere, Eugene Sheehy took the helm at AIB, replacing Michael Buckley, in what was a quiet year for the bank after a long run of scandals in 2004.
Danske, the new owner of National Irish Bank, installed Ulster Bank executive Andrew Healy as chief executive. Healy joined a ever-growing band of youthful bosses, including Eugene Murtagh at Kingspan, Jim Barry at NTR, David Drumm at Anglo Irish Bank, Paul Duffy at Irish Distillers and Dalton Phillips at Brown Thomas.
Survivor of the year was Elan, whose chief executive Kelly Martin signed a new contract ahead of the expected relaunch of its troubled MS treatment Tysabri.
