INVESTMENT MANAGERS Nick Corcoran and Nigel McDermott, who are understood to have assembled a multibillion euro consortium with a view to taking a large stake in Bank of Ireland, set up two related companies earlier this month, writes COLM KEENA, Public Affairs Correspondent.

Mr Corcoran and Mr McDermott are directors of Mallabraca Management Partners Ltd and Mallabraca Investment Funds Ltd, two companies which were registered on November 13th and are believed to be linked to the investment project.

Mallabraca is the name of a townland near Dunmanway, Co Cork. It was the birthplace of Sam Maguire, the Irish republican and GAA player after whom the GAA All Ireland football trophy is named.

The third director of the Mallabraca companies is Brian Hurley, a businessman with an address in Killiney, Co Dublin.

Mr McDermott and Mr Corcoran are the founders of Cardinal Asset Management, a hedge fund management company set up in 2004.

Mr Corcoran is a former founding director and executive vice-president of Zurich Capital Markets, and Mr McDermott is a former founding director of Dermot Desmond's International Investments & Underwriting (IIU).

The latest accounts for Cardinal Asset Management are for the year to the end of December 2006. They show that the company made a loss of €1.4 million, having made a loss of €1.8 million the previous year.

Last year, Mr McDermott resigned as a director of IIU Funds Ireland plc.

According to UK Companies House filings, he is a director of IIU Capital Ltd, a non-trading company, and according to its latest accounts he is also a director of IIU Macro Fund (US) Ltd in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Corcoran is a former director of a range of Zurich Capital and Zeiger Capital Management (ZCM) companies, the bulk of them Bermuda-registered.