Waterford-based Suir Engineering has been sold to the Dutch publicly quoted technical services provider Imtech in a cash deal believed to be worth about €30 million.
Director Pauline Doyle, who lives in Mooncoin, Co Kilkenny, is Suir's largest shareholder and will net €19.8 million from the sale.
Ms Doyle (58) owns 66 per cent of the company, having inherited the shares of her late husband and company founder Noel Doyle in the mid-1990s.
Ms Doyle is not thought to have an active, day-to-day role in the business.
Managing director Edward Walsh, who joined the company in 1993, will receive €7.5 million from the deal and has agreed to remain with Suir for the next three years.
Three shareholder/directors - Michael Grant, Paul Cremmins and Patrick O'Boyle - will each get €900,000 from the deal. They each owned 3 per cent of the business.
It is understood Mr Grant has left the business.
Suir Engineering has 550 staff and is one of the biggest employers in Waterford. The company earned revenues of €68 million in the year to the end of July 2007, a rise of 4.3 per cent on the previous year.
Its latest accounts show that it had accumulated profits of €4.6 million and that it disposed of a property in Mooncoin for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 1984, the company has built a strong reputation in the pharmaceutical sector, working on construction projects here for Wyeth, Genzyme, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, among others.
Other projects have included Cork and Dublin airports, the Beacon Court Clinic, Edenderry Power Station, Intel and IBM.
The company was advised on the sale by Davy Corporate Finance.
Mr Walsh is an electrician by trade and spent about 20 years working abroad before returning home to join Suir.
He said the deal offered significant potential for future growth. "This will strengthen the company going forward and will keep us growing strongly into the future," he said. "We'll also be able to bring our expertise in the pharma sector into the European market with Imtech."
The deal marks Imtech's first entry into the Irish market. Based in Gouda, the Dutch company has 17,000 employees and annual revenues of about €3 billion.
