Dix to deal

One More Thing:With regulatory approval just secured in the United States, Barry O'Callaghan faces a busy time bedding down the €4 billion acquisition of Harcourt into his HM Riverdeep publishing group.

This might explain why he has recruited the services of Robert Dix from KPMG to manage his personal investments.

Dix (54) was the partner in charge of transaction services at KPMG, having set up the business for the accountancy firm. He was involved in a number of large corporate deals in a low-key way over recent years.

O'Callaghan is not short of a few bob. He ranked 48th in the Sunday Times 2007 Rich List with wealth of €280 million. He is described as having a "string of other investments".

The Cork man got the lion's share of a €100 million incentive package paid to Riverdeep's management on the completion of its $4.95 billion takeover of venerable US publishing house Houghton Mifflin last year.

He owns 47 per cent of HM Riverdeep, which is expected to have a value of more than $10 billion when Harcourt has been integrated into the group. It has also got debts of $7.15 billion.

Now that the Harcourt deal has received the green light, Davy is expected to tap its private clients for $235 million in equity for the Harcourt transaction, with O'Callaghan expected to cough up some of this.

O'Callaghan has had a whirlwind career. He took Riverdeep public at the age of 30, before taking it off the stock market three years later when he felt it was undervalued. Five years on and he has completed two massive acquisitions by Irish corporate standards. He is clearly a man in a hurry.

It is not clear how or where O'Callaghan intends to invest his money but Dix should be a busy man.