The Reihill family didn't go out of its way to get the maximum publicity for the restructuring of the various family interests.

Sending in a statement at 9 p.m., with minimal hard information, presumably ensured that the restructuring of the family interests got exactly the amount of publicity the family wanted, without telling anybody what exactly the restructuring was worth to the various members of the extended Reihill family.

And if you thought that a check on the company file of Tedcastle Holdings would provide an indication of what the original structure was, you would be disappointed.

In the line of duty, Current Account visited the Companies Registration Office website to try to sort out the complex Tedcastle corporate and shareholding structure but eventually gave up, knowing as much after two hours as before embarking on the investigations.

Quite simply, the Tedcastle Holdings shareholding structure is a masterpiece of complexity and it's almost impossible to work out exactly what each member of the family owned before John Reihill took 100 per cent control of the oil distribution company.

There are various categories of A,B,C and D shares, and most of the shares are held by two investment companies, Hillingdon and Leifer. Who exactly owns Hillingdon and Leifer is not immediately apparent.

But one thing is clear. After taking 100 per cent control of Tedcastle Holdings, John Reihill is one of the most significant company owners in the Irish corporate world. Tedcastle is one of the biggest operators in the Irish oil distribution market, with 140 petrol stations and 100 convenience stores.

An indication of Tedcastle's size is its sales of more than £297 million (€377 million) in the year to March 2000 - the most recent results filed - and pre-tax profits of £4.8 million were a 50 per cent increase on the previous year. Retained profits at the end of that financial year were £20.5 million while net debt was £7.4 million - an exceedingly modest debt load given the size of the company and, particularly, the size of its assets. Net book value at March 2000 was £59.5 million.

The other Reihills, Frank and Shane, are devoting their time to venture capital. The family's two VC operations, Trinity Venture Capital and Hibernia Capital Partners, operate a combined portfolio in the region of €300 million.

Trinity and Hibernia are not really family companies, given that a lot of the money raised for investment has come from institutional investors, but the Reihill family influence in both venture capital companies is substantial.