So you would like to become mind-numbingly rich? Possibly a millionaire, or, indeed, millionairess? You could tolerate the bother of a country estate and would positively welcome wallowing in champagne, attended by a coterie of flashy flunkies. Serious money, properly acquired, requires a combination of luck, judgement, honest toil and a modicum of hard-edged ruthlessness. You can either inherit it, marry it, win the Lotto or, alternatively, work for it by labouring long and hard in your chosen area of life's business vineyard. Above all, should your enterprise blossom, hang on in as the dominant shareholder; don't cash in those chips too soon. The time will come when the really big players, impressed and alarmed in equal measure, will begin nosing around your brass name-plate. Sit back and wait for the polite and impolite approaches, accompanied by promises of monopoly money should you wish to relinquish control. It could well be that a definitive offer or proposition will emerge which, in all conscience, cannot be refused.
This quintessential risk/reward system of capitalism worked spectacularly well this week for three entrepreneurial individuals who have reached the stratosphere of "paper" multi-millionaires, cashing in mightily on the rewards of personal enterprise. Leading the personal wealth stakes is David McKenna, the relatively low-profile managing director of Malborough Interna- tional, the Republic's premier staff recruitment company, which is to be floated on the Dublin and London stock exchanges. The company hopes to raise £10 million by placing £4 million of its MD's personal shareholding and creating £6 million in new equity. McKenna bought the company for a modest £6,000 on its liquidation in 1992. His personal shareholding is valued somewhere between £10 million and £15 million.
Flying the flag for gender equity, in every sense, comes Ms Carol Moffett, managing director of Moffett Engineering, the family company in the process of being absorbed by Northern Ireland engineering company Powerscreen in a £23 million transaction. Ms Moffett, with 48 per cent of the shares, sits astride a tuffet of shares valued at an approximate £11 million. Moffett, which employs 300 people, is one of Ireland's most successful indigenous companies, designing and selling heavy-duty plant and equipment. The company, has net assets of £5 million and its last set of accounts showed annual profits of £1. 6 million. Last, but not least, in this gold-plated triumvirate is Craig McKinney, founder, chairman and whizz-kid of Woodchester Investments, the leasing group cum bank. Confirmation this week that Woodchester would be absorbed by GE Capital in a whopping £591 million takeover - the biggest yet of an Irish public company - will ensure even more lavish red carpet treatment for Craig at his local bank. McKinney, who in his spare time wields a mean polo mallet, will receive £6.7 million for his 2.56 million pieces of company paper and a further £800,000 for share options, enough to buy several polo grounds and a stable of finely-honed horseflesh. The managerial talents of McKinney, who played a pivotal role in Woodchester's evolution, will continue to be utilised by the new owners. He remains in situ on a service contract.
Last word to that impecunious, pre-socialist scribbler of note, Francis Bacon, who once wrote that "Money is like muck, no good except it be spread". A sizeable dollop has been shovelled the way of three worthy luminaries, a case of not only "bringing home the bacon" but the entire herd of porkers. The rest of us begrudgers will have to dream on, shuffling a different sort of paper in the fantasy kingdom where the Lotto slip is king.
