Cantillon: Siteserv right to rebrand while all is calm

What’s in a name? Siteserv chief executive Sean Corkery will be hoping Actavo, the infastructural services company’s new moniker, moves it on from the furore that rumbled this summer over its acquisition by Denis O’Brien from IBRC.

However, yesterday’s statement on IBRC loan sales from Independent TD Catherine Murphy, O’Brien’s chief tormentor over Siteserv, shows the public’s appetite for the gory details on the wider controversy remains intact. The story could also come back into the headlines in coming months, depending on what emerges from the Commission of Inquiry into IBRC.

A name change for the company has been on the cards for months. Corkery told The Irish Times back in May that he had already been planning to do it before the palaver over its sale to O'Brien grew legs in late spring.

The company’s reputation with some large potential clients, he explained, was being damaged by the blizzard of headlines surrounding its buyout by O’Brien. If a contract pitch was tight, with little to separate Siteserv from a rival bidder, management worried, might a potential client go with the other company to avoid any potential controversy?

But rather than rebrand in the eye of the storm and face the inevitable allegations that it was trying to rewrite history, Corkery, an experienced international technology executive, chose to wait until things cooled down.

The furore aside, a name change is appropriate. Siteserv is unrecognisable from the wreck of a company bought by O’Brien in 2012. Then, it was heavily geared towards the construction industry: hence the name, which indicated it was aimed towards serving building sites.

Now it is much more focused on services to communications companies and public utilities. Its water metering contracts fuel much of the antagonism towards the company from some quarters.

But when the time inevitably comes for smart electricity meters, Actavo will consider itself one of the favourites for more public contracts.

In the meantime, the Government-appointed commission of inquiry into certain IBRC corporate sell-offs, including Siteserv, is expected to report back by Christmas. Depending upon its findings, the saga could return to the headlines once again.

Perhaps Corkery is wise to change its brand now while all remains relatively calm.