Murtagh sells one third of Kingspan holding

Brendan Murtagh, co-founder and director of building materials group Kingspan, has sold one third of his holding in the group for close to €50 million.

It is understood that Mr Murtagh will be investing money in a property fund that Howard Holdings, another business of which he is a director, is currently putting together. The fund will be invested mainly in European properties. Just over 2.5 million shares in Kingspan changed hands yesterday on the Irish Stock Exchange.

Mr Murtagh is understood to have sold around 2.4 million of the 7.5 million shares he owns in the company.

Mr Murtagh sold the shares for an average of €20.05 each, netting him €48.12 million. His remaining stake in the company stands at just over five million units, which is roughly 2.9 per cent.

At last night's closing price of €20.135, this stake is worth over €100 million. The shares fell from their opening quote of €20.90 yesterday morning as a result of the sale.

Listed companies are obliged to inform the market within three days when directors sell their shares. Kingspan issued no notice of the deal yesterday, but is expected to do over the next day or so. Mr Murtagh did not make any statement.

He is one of the largest single shareholders in the Cavan-based group, which he founded with his brother, Eugene Murtagh, who is a non-executive director. According to Kingspan's annual report, he held 7.5 million shares at the end of last year. He acquired 660 further shares in mid March.

Eugene's son, Gene M Murtagh, is chief executive. Brendan Murtagh is Kingspan's head of corporate development.

A number of the group's directors acquired shares recently under various option schemes, and also sold a number of units.

They included Gene Murtagh, finance director, Dermot Mulvihill and Russell Shiels, the executive with responsibility for its North American operations.

Non-executive Eoin McCarthy, one of its former managers, and David Byrne, one-time EU commissioner and attorney general, who is another independent Kingspan director, also dealt some shares. However, none of the amounts involved in any of the other directors' dealings were large.

Kingspan has operations across this country, Britain, continental Europe and North America. The company specialises in advanced insulation panels and technology designed to cut energy use in buildings.

Governments and planning authorities in Europe and North America are beginning to raise standards for insulation in new buildings, moves which should boost demand for the Irish group's products.

Along with Howard Holdings, Brendan Murtagh has a number of business interests outside the Kingspan group. These include telecoms group, Smart, and British supermarket chain, Kwik Save.