Senior Taylor executives leave to form new investment firm

THREE senior executives of the Taylor Investment Group have left the company and set up a new investment firm, linked to Riada stockbrokers. The three, led by Mr Eddie Hobbs, have taken the clients and business of Taylor Integrated Planning Services (TIPS) which was a subsidiary of the Taylor Group, with them to the new operation.

The new company, Financial Engineering Network (FEN), will market investment products through a range of intermediaries, aiming at private clients and pension funds. Riada will manage the resulting funds and provide the back up investment services in return for a fee.

The largest shareholder in the new operation will be Mr Eddie Hobbs. Two other senior executives of the Taylor Group, Mr Aidan McLoughlin and Mr Paul Overy also hold equity stakes. Other shareholders include investment intermediaries Mr John Kelleher and Mr Tom Carroll in Cork and Mr Terry Toal, who operates a number of outlets in the midlands.

It is understood that Riada may, at some stage, take an equity stake in the new operation.

The Taylor Group, itself established by current managing director Mr Tony Taylor in the mid 1970s, set up TIPS in 1991 and this part of the operation was run by Mr Hobbs. A total of 10 staff have moved from the Taylor Group to the new operation based at Riada headquarters in College Green, DDublin.

The Taylor Group will now concentrate on its investment and fund management business and sees Britain as a key area for expansion. It has acquired mandates to manage a number of broker funds in Britain and this will now be "the major growth area" for the group, according to Mr Taylor.

Mr Taylor said that the departure of Mr Hobbs and his team had been "very amicable there is no fight". The TIPS business "was not our mainstay", he said. In a joint statement, Mr Taylor and Mr Hobbs said the move would allow both "to concentrate on our individual objectives".

Mr Hobbs said the new company would customise a range of investment, insurance and professional service products, aimed at top private and corporate clients and delivered through a small number of specialist intermediaries. The company took the TIPS client base, which Mr Hobbs said numbered about 700 people and, includes. a large number of wealthy individuals.

FEN is negotiating witch a number of other intermediaries, he said, and was actively working on ., product range. Once the range of intermediaries was complete,, the group could then develop a centralised administrative structure, he said. Its foundations would be based on product design, Riada's investment management and advanced technology,