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Ryanair in hiring mode and wife of Seán Quinn declared bankrupt

Seen & Heard: Carton House’s €57m sale, Patricia Quinn’s bankruptcy and AIB’s State bailout

Carton House in Kildare.

Sun Oct 15 2017 - 16:44

Ryanair courts Bellew

Ryanair wants to lure Peter Bellew, a former head of flight operations and now chief executive of Malaysia Airlines back to the Irish carrier, according to The Sunday Times.

The newspaper reports that Ryanair has been courting Bellew and wants him to return as chief operating officer, replacing Michael Hickey, who has announced he is leaving the role.

Bellew took on his current job at Malaysia Airlines after former Aer Lingus chief executive, Christoph Mueller, left the helm. He joined as Mueller's deputy in 2015.

The Irishman, a native of Co Meath, is said to have pledged to turn around Malaysia Airlines. Last month he is reported to have told a local newspaper that he was happy at the airline and that it would be one of his “greatest achievements” if he could transform the carrier.

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Hickey announced his resignation following several weeks of controversy over Ryanair’s plans to cancel flights up to March next. Ryanair said on Sunday that it does not comment on rumour or speculation.

John Mullen’s €57m spend at Carton

The Sunday Times also reported that wealthy Irish American businessman John Mullen is buying Carton House hotel and golf resort in Co Kildare for €57 million. Mullen, whose parents are from Co Mayo, exchanged contracts to buy the property on Wednesday, the newspaper said.

The deal is a personal investment, and Mullen's first in Ireland. It includes the 165-bedroom hotel, which spans the 18th-century mansion that was once home to the earls of Kildare and a modern complex.

Its owners, the Mallaghan and Kelly families, put the hotel on the market in mid-July for €60 million in a consensual sale with Nama.

Mullen is the founder and chairman of the Philadelphia-based Apple Leisure Group, which includes an international travel business and a resorts division.

Patricia Quinn’s bankruptcy

The Sunday Business Post reported that IBRC, the former Anglo Irish Bank, has bankrupted the wife of former billionaire businessman Sean Quinn over an unpaid €3 million loan. Patricia Quinn was not present in the High Court last Monday when the adjudication order was handed down, it said.

The special liquidators of IBRC served the 64-year-old with a bankruptcy summons last July on foot of a judgement secured against her in December 2011. The loans, advanced in 2006, to her and her husband, were to decorate the family home in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.

IMF warns risk-taking insurers

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that insurers risk triggering the next financial crash by pouring cash into risky assets to shore up profits, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The fund said that insurers are buying higher-risk bonds and other assets as they struggle with historically low interest rates. The newspaper said that IMF financial counsellor, Tobias Adrian, has warned that there is too much money chasing too few yielding assets.

"There is less than $2 trillion of investment grade bonds yielding over 4 per cent compared with $16 trillion before the crisis," he said. Insurers in the US and Japan in particular are increasing the maturity of the bonds they hold, boosting returns, but also increasing risk.

AIB close to repaying bailout

AIB is within touching distance of repaying all of the State's €20.8 billion financial crisis cash injection, its chief executive Bernard Byrne said in an interview with The Sunday Independent.

The newspaper reported that Byrne said the bank could return to full private ownership in two to three years following its recent partial flotation. He argued that there was a two- to three-year window to capitalise on the success of the flotation, which raised €3.4 billion for the State.

Byrne repeated that the bank could ultimately sell its remaining non-performing loans if that was what it needed to do.

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