As a private company, Martin Naughton's Glen Dimplex makes it a virtue to say as little as possible about the deals it does.

As for telling us what it pays for its various acquisitions, forget it. Martin Naughton, Lochlann Quinn and chief executive Sean O'Driscoll regularly make it quite clear that they have no intention of going into any details about the deals in which Glen Dimplex get involved. One wonders why then even bother announcing acquisitions.

But now, 18 months after it first took a stake, Glen Dimplex looks like it is finally shaping up for a tilt at publicly-quoted British appliance maker Kenwood. If a bid is made, then it will probably have to be more than 100p sterling a share or close on £45 million sterling (€71 million).

If Glen Dimplex does bid, then Messrs Naughton, Quinn and O'Driscoll must hope that the result is better than the last time they bid for a plc. On that occasion, Glen Dimplex got a bit of a bloody nose when the vendors of Moulinex decided to keep the food mixers French and spurned the Irish offer.