Airtricity founder Eddie O'Connor believes his bid to take control of the wind farm operator would have succeeded if he had made his move sooner and if the auction process did not coincide with Christmas, writes Arthur Beesley,Senior Business Correspondent
The firm was sold for €1.83 billion a week ago to Scottish and Southern Energy, whose unconditional bid was more than 10 per cent lower than Dr O'Connor's conditional bid. In an Irish Timesinterview in which he made a point of saying Airtricity "always set the price" at which its 51 per cent owner NTR invested in the business, Dr O'Connor said he blamed himself "a little bit" for not initiating his bid sooner.
Estimated to have realised between €50 million and €60 million from the sale, he said his overwhelming sensation was one of triumph, in spite of the failure of his bid.
"I just lodged it too late," he said, adding that he did not make his move until the first or second week of December. "You're still disappointed, but you're not that worried. This company stands as a monument to my vision. It's in the ownership of the strongest global utilities. I can't complain about that. It's left me with enough money to do what I want to do, whatever that might be.
"We were doubly unlucky. The letter of support that we had from JPMorgan would have been unequivocally stronger had not the Christmas period intervened. Making a bid over the Christmas, that's something, if it happened to me again, I'd be very careful about it because people have plans made, they've holidays to engage in, they're working hard all the time.
"So we didn't actually give ourselves the best chance at being represented. Am I bitter about it? Not in the slightest. I suspect they gave the bid a fair hearing. I had to absent myself from board meetings, you know, and stuff like that, when these things were getting considered. Therefore I wasn't there, but I expect that I was given a fair hearing."
Scottish and Southern is paying a net sum of €1.83 billion to buy Airtricity's European unit for €1.08 billion and assume the rights to €746 million in net proceeds from the sale of its American unit to German utility Eon.
"I started a bit late in the day I think. If I had been able to offer them let's say an unconditional price, obviously they would have accepted it.
"I don't think there was any agenda there not to buy from me or not to sell to me. I don't think there was any of that being implied," he said.
"We thought we had enough backing. I would characterise my relations with NTR as excellent. I had the ideas and, if you like, the foresight. But you have to recognise the role that [ NTR chairman] Tom Roche played in all of this. Tom Roche backed me when they weren't queuing up, nobody was.
"Could we have built the company without Tom? I don't know. It's that serious. Yes, we have the ideas. Yes, we were able to choose the right people," Dr O'Connor said.
