NCB chief has big plans for broker

Mr Conor O'Kelly, chief executive of the new-look NCB, seems remarkably unscathed for a man whose company has been through one failed acquisition and two management buyout (MBO) attempts (one failed, one successful) within the past eight months.

He puts the calm down to actually knowing what was going on behind the scenes, arguing that the employees who stuck with the broker through the upheaval of the past year were the ones who really had to put on a brave face.

"I can't believe they haven't walked out on us," he says, adding that the loyalty of the staff was one of the factors that convinced him to stick with the MBO route after his team's first takeover attempt fell apart in June.

Looking back, he believes the crucial, deal-making difference between the first MBO, in which he was also involved, and the second was the presence and "vision" of his old friend and now equal partner, Mr Conor Killeen, who was then based in London at fledgling corporate finance adviser Key Capital.

The two began serious discussions on a linkage almost immediately after the initial buyout foundered and, after six weeks and a quick call to Mr Dermot Desmond, a deal was done.

Mr Desmond, who Mr O'Kelly said "had always expressed an interest in helping out", was a moving part in the jigsaw however, with his financial backing seen by all as an interim measure.

Mr O'Kelly says that the decision to seek a long-term institutional partner after, rather than before, the takeover was complete allowed the MBO team to avoid being "squeezed into a corner" by a large partner.

Management was also determined, he says, to seek out a partner who, in contrast to previous owners, Royal Bank of Scotland, cared about growing the business.

That this organisation emerged this week as part of Mr Seán Quinn's Quinn Group came as a shock to many, with most of the surprise lying in Mr Quinn's lack of stockbroking history.

Mr O'Kelly says the response of both NCB clients and staff has been more positive, with the Quinn Group's firmly Irish identity particularly well received.

He describes Mr Quinn, who has maintained a business relationship with NCB for many years, as a "gentleman", but also acknowledges the Fermanagh man's well-earned reputation for toughness in business.

"He's not afraid to take on the big boys," he says, welcoming in this very regard that he is "not looking for a quick flip" on his NCB investment.

Mr O'Kelly is happy that the deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, will allow the company's management to the return to their real jobs after a year of "seeking solutions".

The new NCB is, he says, a very different place to be, with half of workers now holding shares in the company, and growth on the agenda for the first time in years.

"We didn't do the MBO to cut costs or pay down debt," he says, pointing repeatedly to Mr Quinn's firm backing for expansion plans at home and abroad.

He expresses some amusement at the traditional Dublin stockbroker ranking, which places NCB third after Davy and Goodbody, arguing that Irish brokers' true competitors are international rather than domestic.

In this light, one of the successful MBO team's first steps was to subsume Key Capital into NCB, a move which instantly created a London presence for the broker.

This will be a platform for expansion on both the equity and corporate finance fronts, Mr O'Kelly says.

He believes talk of the Irish market's demise is much exaggerated. According to Mr O'Kelly, the future of the ISEQ lies not in new listings but in the index's mid-ranking companies.