When economies boom and lots of goods are moving in and out of the country, it's pretty obvious that the transport companies who shift all that freight are going to do pretty well.
Even so, if, three years ago, you were told that five privately owned Irish transport companies would be bought out for a combined £150 million (€190 million), eyebrows would have been raised.
Last week, Francis Scully, Desmond McGarry, Frank Finan, Gus Danaher and three smaller shareholders sold IWT Logistics (what used to be known as Irish Warehousing and Transport) for £15 million.
Last September, US multinational Flextronics paid £60 million for Irish Express Cargo. A few months earlier, Ted O'Neill became £4 million richer, accountant Bernard Somers made £1.8 million and Charlie Garavan £1.2 million when the British ports group Mersey Docks bought Imari.
In October 1999, the owner of the Williames Transport Group, Stephen Fitzgerald, made £10 million when Williames was bought by an arm of the British Post Office. And 18 months earlier, Limerickman Michael Enright picked up most of the £40 million that Exel (then headed by Irishman Gerry Murphy) paid for Walsh Western.
Who's going to be next?
