Buying into an Irish growth story

Only a week ago, Merrion Capital was celebrating its selection with Goldman Sachs as financial adviser to Aer Lingus on its privatisation.

But few outside Merrion knew that its board was on the cusp of selling the firm to Landsbanki, an Icelandic bank.

A deal putting a valuation of €55.3 million on Merrion was signed over breakfast yesterday, ending talks that began in August.

This was Landsbanki's third acquisition of a stockbroker this year. It bought London firm Teather & Greenwood for £42 million (€62.14 million) in February and followed that in September with a €94 million purchase of Kepler Equities, the pan-European firm.

The Merrion deal, which brings the value of Landsbanki's current buying spree to more than €211 million, marks a major coup for Merrion's founders. In business since 1999, the company is projected to have a net asset value of €17 million by year end.

That Merrion's start-up phase, blighted by the dotcom crash, serves to underline the achievement of a firm that was never modest in its ambition. Long before it won prestigious contracts with as big a beast as Goldman Sachs, the firm won key contracts in the €3.5 billion Eircom privatisation and the €3.5 billion take-private of Smurfit.

So what of Landsbanki? The Icelanders are the second Nordic players into Ireland this year after the acquisition of National Irish Bank and Northern Bank by Danske Bank of Denmark.

Established in 1885 and fully privatised in 2002, Landsbanki's biggest shareholder is Samson Holding, owner of a 45 per cent stake and controlled by businessman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, who is chairman of the bank, his son Thor Bjorgolfsson and their associate Magnus Thorsteinsson.

They have rail, pharmaceutical and telecoms interests, but their most noted deal was the $400 million (€341 million) sale to Heineken in 2002 of a four-year-old brewing business in St Petersburg, Russia.

Landsbanki plans for Merrion to contribute to a pan-European stockbroking platform, with opportunities for synergies with its other acquisitions, by buying into the Irish growth story.

One midsummers' day in June 1999, John Conroy and six other executives walked out of their well-paid jobs in NCB Stockbrokers to form Merrion. After much hard work, that move came good when Mr Conroy was introduced to Landsbanki earlier this year.