Shell Ireland director Dr Frank Bergin and members of his senior management team will take a minority shareholding in Topaz, the new company that is buying the oil distribution and service station business.

Dr Bergin and his colleagues are staying on with Shell Ireland after its takeover by Topaz Distribution and Logistics, which is fronted by former Emo Oil head Danny Murray and backed by five Ion Equity executives.

While the Topaz deal is believed to put a value of at least €200 million on Shell Ireland, the management team is expected to make a phased investment in the company.

There may also be a performance-related conditions to the deal, under which the managers would be receive shares in return for meeting certain commercial targets.

The arrangement with Dr Bergin does not include Andy Pyle, the head of Shell E&P, a separate Shell subsidiary behind the troubled project to bring gas ashore from the Corrib field off Co Mayo, whose operations are not included in the Topaz takeover.

Shell Ireland's spokeswoman said: "Frank Bergin is not involved in the consortium." Ion's spokesman said: "Andy Pyle is not involved in the Topaz consortium and Frank Bergin is not involved in the consortium."

However, industry sources familiar with the structure of the deal confirmed that it was planned to grant shares to the managers. The same sources said the managers were not at present members of the consortium but would take shareholdings some time after the deal was concluded later this year.

Dr Bergin spoke of "jointly" growing the business with its new owners when the deal was made public last Friday.

Mr Murray will become chief executive of Topaz in an investment backed by Anglo Irish Bank. The Ion executives involved in the deal are: Neil O'Leary, Joe Devine, Ulric Kenny, Patrick Hogan and David Fewer. ...

Their consortium, which will keep the Shell name, beat off rival bids from groups including David Courtney of property consultants Spain Courtney Doyle and Galway-based businessman John Sweeney of Sweeney Oil.

Shell put the business up for sale almost a year ago. With a turnover of more than €1 billion, the business is involved in the oil, gas, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil and lubricants markets on both sides of the border.

The company supplies 105 independently-owns filling stations and owns another 55 stations. Topaz is likely to take advantage of the property boom by selling some of the highly-valued sites in locations in the Dublin area.