A former Irish Times business editor, Richard Keatinge (pictured above), has had a busy career since he departed the fourth estate in the early 1980s to take up a series of high-profile jobs in the corporate sector. Bank of Ireland in Britain, Hardwicke, NCB Corporate Finance and latterly Bank of Ireland's IBI Corporate Finance have all seen the Keatinge presence.

A few months ago, Mr Keatinge left IBI "to pursue other interests". It was the general view at the time that he planned to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor at IBI, Richard Hooper, and his close friend, James Osborne, and take up a number of non-executive directorships.

Building materials group Heiton is one of Mr Keatinge's first directorships, and no doubt his corporate finance skills will come in handy if and when Grafton springs its bid for Heiton.

Now, Current Account notices that Richard Keatinge has taken his first shareholding in Heiton - he has been given one (yes one) share as a gift - putting his stake in Heiton at 0.000002 per cent, according to the stock exchange notification. And the value of his Heiton stake - €3 or £2.36.

No doubt that shareholding will rise in the months ahead!