Gallen takes up new role at NCB

One More Thing:Former Unidare and Siteserv executive, Kevin Gallen, is taking up a new role as a director of NCB Corporate Finance from Monday.

Gallen recently left Siteserv, the quoted building services company in which developer and Arnotts investor, Niall McFadden, has a stake.

But he's better remembered for the break-up and sale of another plc, industrial holding company, Unidare, which was completed last year.

In the early part of the decade, Unidare suffered from the same lack of investor enthusiasm as a lot of Irish second-line stocks, and its price hovered between €1 and €1.50 for most of the time.

As part of the Unidare process, Gallen and fellow executive, Jack Hayes, sold a number of group companies, including Dutch manufacturer Daalderop, US wholesaler ORS Nasco, and electrical cable business Eland.

The subsequent distribution amounted to a total of €5.40 per share, between three and four times Unidare's 2001-2002 price range and a premium on its 1995 high of over €4.

Gallen got a €600,000 bonus for his work while Hayes received more than €1 million.

Most commentators argued Gallen and Hayes got good value and earned their bonuses.