Tag Archives: Denis

Lucy1Not just us then.

It’s what they said about all the great leaders.

Nixon, Haughey, Robert Maxwell, William Martin Murphy, Pol Pot, General Eoin O’Duffy.

This morning Communicorp chairperson and Independent News & Media non-executive director Lucy Gaffney, above, spoke at a breakfast organised by Plan Ireland, during which she recalled the time when her boss Denis O’Brien was bidding for that Esat mobile phone licence and, no doubt, double parking like a boss.

How to get Lowry in and out of the building without being detected was the first problem

Marketing.ie blog report:

“Other issues which Gaffney spoke about included her experience working with Esat while bidding for the mobile phone licence in Ireland. She recalled how their office windows were blacked out and the room swept for listening devices every morning. ‘Like all entrepreneurs, Denis is completely and utterly paranoid,’ Gaffney said.”

 

It doesn’t mean everyone’s not out to get you.

Etc.

Gaffney advocates pooling news (Marketing.ie)

Previously: The Moriarty Tribunal Report: Esat Back And Relax

(Pic: Digicelcayman)

LowryDenis

 

“The agent, Kevin Phelan, got Stg£248,624 from Mr Lowry on Aug 28, 2002, six months after the date their negotiations were supposed to have had been finalised and settled.”

“Six days earlier, Mr Phelan received a separate fee of £150,000 on behalf of Denis O’Brien. This was transferred on Aug 22, 2002, after a dispute was resolved between Mr O’Brien and Mr Phelan over the agent’s role in the Doncaster Rovers project.”

“Under the terms of the O’Brien deal, Mr Phelan was paid outstanding fees and relinquished certain claims to profits.

“But the final point of agreement involved clarification from Mr Phelan that a reference to Mr Lowry in one critical document was not Doncaster-related. This issue arose from a note on 1999 fax discussion and was detailed in tribunal testimony by Denis O’Brien Snr, who handled these negotiations on his son’s behalf.

Mr Lowry, Mr O’Brien Snr and Denis O’Brien Jnr have all denied the former Fine Gael minister had anything to do with the Doncaster project.”

 

Conor Ryan, in today’s Irish Examiner, reporting that Michael Lowry paid Kevin Phelan that £250,000 six days after Mr Phelan, separately, agreed with Denis O’Brien to retract a reference linking Mr Lowry with the Doncaster Rovers project.

*popcorn*

Read more here.

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

Denisnew

In today’s Irish Times, Colm Keena writes about the possible implications of an INM debt writedown, pointing to the company’s largest shareholder Denis O’Brien’s considerable wealth and his tax affairs.

He sez:

“Last year he bought the Irish business support firm, Siteserv, for €45.4 million. As part of the deal the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which incorporated Anglo Irish Bank, wrote off 70 per cent of a €150 million debt Siteserv had with Anglo. Now INM is reportedly seeking the write-off of up to a quarter of its €400 million bank debt. How much is being asked of the Irish banks is not known.”

 

“No-one is arguing that it is better that companies with unsustainable debts be allowed collapse rather than have their debts reduced to manageable levels. But giving write-downs to companies that are wholly or in part owned by non-resident billionaires who appear to be flush with cash, raises the kind of issues referred to in the OECD report. This is especially so when so many people on moderate incomes are being levied with extra taxes, while also struggling with debts which the banks, and the Government, say should not be written off if the debtor can pay, least it create a moral hazard.”

 

Would An INM Write-Down Involve Moral Hazard? (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

Previously: $5billion, Eh?

Denis, Dividends, Debts and Paying Back Anglo