Mullin's €200m equity fund

Brendan Mullin, the former stockbroker, fund manager and international rugby player, has left Quinlan Private to set up his own €200 million private equity fund.

The departure from Quinlan Private was described as "amicable" yesterday by sources, although the two companies could now find themselves bidding against each other on certain deals. However, Mr Mullin's fund is likely to concentrate heavily on Irish and UK deals.

Mr Mullin, a former director of Davy and Goodbody Stockbrokers, has been a key staff member for Derek Quinlan, the founder and executive chairman of Quinlan Private for the last three years. According to records in the Com-panies Office he was also a shareholder in the main holding group for the Quinlan companies - Quinlan Capital Partners Holding Ltd. In 2004 Mr Mullin sold his Powerscourt Capital Partners, his private clients business, to Quinlan Private for a price believed to be between €4 and €5 million. After the deal Mr Mullin became business development director for Quinlan Private. His central role was to raise equity for the firm's various investments.

Mr Mullin has done well from various deals in his own right recently. For example, through Quinlan Private he had a significant stake in technology firm Zamano, which floated last summer for about €25 million.

The Quinlan Group also suffered another departure last year. In November one of the directors of Quinlan Private, Matt Jones, who was involved in negotiating the Savoy Hotel deal, left to join Hamilton Osborne King's commercial division. Mr Jones was with Quinlan Private for seven years, and had responsibility for advising its high-net worth clients on managing their wealth and assets, the original purpose for which the firm was set up.

Quinlan Private hit the headlines in mid-2004 when it successfully bid €1.1 billion for the Savoy Hotel group in London, buying it from venture capitalist firm Blackstone.

Mr Quinlan is a revenue inspector turned tax adviser who made his name devising schemes for high-net worth clients who wanted to invest in property developments that benefited from tax incentives.

Mr Mullin was capped many times for Ireland and was part of the 1985 Triple Crown winning team. Up until November he was on the board of London Irish Rugby Club but stepped down due to time commitments.