Arthur Beesleytakes a spin through the highs and lows of 2007 in business.
Undeterred by the ruling of the Supreme Court that he dealt illegally in Fyffes shares when making an €85 million profit for his company, DCC executive chairman Jim Flavin heads this year's roll-call for his extraordinary survival at the helm of a business that claims to uphold "very high" standards of corporate governance.
Flavin is the most prominent occupant of the losers' enclosure this year, unfamiliar territory for him after decades of devotion to DCC's profitable expansion. While he remains firmly in situ with the backing of the entire DCC board, corporate enforcer Paul Appleby now has him in his sights.
Appleby has said there may also be issues for DCC's directors and for Fyffes, although the fruit importer is in a line for a big damages payment from DCC. If this sorry affair cast aspects of the Irish market in a deeply unflattering light, there has not been a word of criticism about the position of the board from the corporate community at large.
In a period dominated by stock market turbulence and economic slowdown, it is arguable that there were more losers than winners in Irish business than for a good many years. Still, copious profit was the order of the day for some. Edging ahead of the winners this year was JDH Acquisitions, the vehicle through which the family of the late PV Doyle took control of the Jurys Doyle hotel empire two years ago.
The €1.16 billion sale of the Jurys Inn chain to investment firm Quinlan Private and the €288 million sale of the Burlington to hotel developer Bernard McNamara brought to €950 million the family's profit from the asset disposals that started with the sale of the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels to developer Seán Dunne in 2005.
Multiple job losses at the hotels notwithstanding, it was a shrewd exercise in profit-making by Bernie Gallagher and her sisters Eileen Monaghan and Ann Roche.
Big as it was, the Jurys Inn transaction was not the only €1 billion-plus deal involving Quinlan Private in 2007.
The firm took a 44 per cent stake in a joint venture with Israeli investor Igal Ahouvi in the buy-out of Marriott Group's 47 British hotels for €1.6 billion. Derek Quinlan, founder of the firm, bought Citigroup's European headquarters at Canary Wharf in London for £1 billion (€1.4 billion) in a 50:50 joint venture with British investor Glenn Maud. This "personal investment" by Mr Quinlan was the second-largest single property transaction in Britain.
Property deals of another kind made for an annus terribilis at the Law Society, thanks to the wayward investments of errant solicitors Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne.
With the running total on their combined liabilities close to €130 million, most of the leading financial institutions have exposure to a scandal that has enraged many members of the legal profession.
It's still too early to declare a winner in what is sizing up to be an epic struggle for control of Independent News & Media (IN&M) between Sir Anthony O'Reilly, the firm's dominant shareholder, and his pretender Denis O'Brien.
Yet the phoney war intensified radically this year as the predacious O'Brien increased his stake almost fivefold to 14.5 per cent from 3 per cent.
If that alone signals danger for Sir Anthony, Mr O'Brien also questioned his entertainment expenses and used interviews in the international media to call for his retirement as chief executive and the sale of the London Independent.
IN&M's response was led by Sir Anthony's son Gavin O'Reilly, chief operating officer of the group, who accused Mr O'Brien of an "outrageous" attempt to impugn his father and drive down the group's share price in advance of a bid. Mr O'Brien has not said whether he will bid, but there is a sense that the skirmishing will ultimately lead to all-out war.
Both the main protagonists in this game of wits were busy outside the IN&M battle arena.
Mr O'Brien realised no less than $800 million on a refinancing of Digicel, his Caribbean mobile empire, and went on to spend €200 million on the acquisition of Today FM, greatly increasing the reach of his Irish radio business.
A condition of approval for the deal was the sale of Today FM's sister station FM104, which fetched €52 million when sold to UTV.
Separately, the Moriarty tribunal declined Mr O'Brien's request to adopt a standard of proof of "substantial probability" in its forthcoming report on payments to Michael Lowry, former minister for communications.
Sir Anthony engaged in yet another fundamental review at Waterford Wedgwood, a serial loss-maker in which he and his brother-in-law have invested some €250 million. Almost 500 jobs will be lost.
Providence Resources, the exploration firm in which he has a 40.3 per cent stake, made a "significant" oil find off Hook Head on the Wexford coast.
An Irish oil firm of larger scale, Tullow, made it big when it entered the prestigious FTSE 100 index.
If the rising price of oil on international markets was of clear benefit to Tullow founder Aidan Heavey, turmoil in the international credit markets that flowed from the subprime mortgage debacle in the US took its toll in the Dublin financial scene.
The biggest loser was International Securities Trading Corporation, a specialist lender to financial institutions which is now in examinership with liabilities of €871 million. Established in 2005 by former Anglo Irish Bank executive Tiarnan O'Mahoney, the firm's backers included insurance tycoon Seán Quinn, Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick, Denis O'Brien and developer Paddy Kelly.
Another casualty of the credit crunch was Structured Credit Company (SCC), a wholesale financial firm whose liabilities mushroomed to $438 million from $55 million within in a matter of weeks.
Led by managing director Edward Bowers, SCC had raised $207.8 million in June 2006 to start a credit risk business. The firm went into provisional liquidation in August before a lengthy High Court examinership culminated in a rescue by private equity fund Aquiline Capital Partners.
Meanwhile, a $3 billion exposure to subprime debt in a Dublin off-balance sheet fund almost brought German state bank SachsenLB to the wall. Only a €17.3 billion rescue package from a consortium of other state banks in Germany saved the day.
With the Dublin stock market down more than 27 per cent in mid-December, large numbers of Irish investors in contracts for difference (CFDS) faced a fear-inducing series of unforgiving margin calls from brokers.
On a happier note, Smurfit Kappa chief Gary McGann defied a sustained sell-off of stock on the global equity markets to raise €1.495 billion in March in an initial public offering that heralded Dr Michael Smurfit's retirement from the business.
The Smurfit Kappa stock was priced at €16.50 a share; the group's return to the stock market was the only large-cap flotation in Dublin this year. The shares were not immune to the decline in Irish stocks at large. Having risen at one point to €20.88, the stock traded around €11.15 before Christmas.
Cider-maker C&C had an inauspicious time of it as bad weather and increased competition in Britain weakened the allure of its Magners product. C&C chief Maurice Pratt did manage to take in €249 million from Britvic's acquisition of its water and soft drink interests.
The good news stopped there, as two profit warnings in the space of three weeks in July took a brutal toll on its share price. Having finished 2006 at €13.45 per share, C&C stock changed hands at €4.10 last week.
As the domestic property market went into serious decline, Irish banking stocks in particular felt the chill winds of crisis in the international financial markets even though their profits invariably rose.
AIB chief Eugene Sheehy saw its shares trade around €15.40 before Christmas, down from €22.50 at the end of 2006. After finishing last year at €17.50, Bank of Ireland chief Brian Goggin saw its stock fall below €10 and traded only marginally above that level before Christmas. David Drumm at Anglo Irish Bank saw the bank's share fall to €10.65 before Christmas from €15.71 last year.
Newly-installed Irish Life & Permanent chief Denis Casey was not in charge when the institution's shares finished 2006 at €20.90 - the share changed hands around €11.94 before Christmas.
With a deal to sell Irish Nationwide Building Society still not done at the end of 2007, managing director Michael Fingleton must leave its board in January when he turns 70. Given the decline in bank valuations, a €1.5 billion price tag looks increasingly out of kilter with the market.
Irish Nationwide came on the market only in recent months, a year after legislation was passed to effect its demutualisation. EBS, the only other remaining building society, was in the news for entirely different reasons.
Non-executive director Ethna Tinney lost her attempt to be re-elected, but not before acrimony at its annual meeting and the leaking of confidential records that described serious personalised conflict and a lack of trust within its board.
Unknown at the moment is the extent to which the credit crunch will curtail merger and acquisition activity in 2008.
The lack of liquidity prompted Barry O'Callaghan's Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG), the former HM Riverdeep, to delay the syndication of $7.15 billion in loans.
The group's debt spiralled after Mr O'Callaghan followed his $4.95 million reverse takeover of Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin with a $4 billion cash and stock purchase of Harcourt, the US education division of Reed Elsevier.
In an unexpected development, EMPG sold its college division for $750 million this month. In February, Ernst & Young resigned as auditor to Riverdeep over "incorrect representations" about a contract with a US educational software firm.
Other deal-makers were out in force this year.
Airtricity realised €1 billion sale to German group Eon of the North American windfarms, a deal which vindicated the vision of company founder Eddie O'Connor and its 51 per cent shareholder NTR. Airtricity's European assets are now on the block with a price tag of €1 billion.
In addition, NTR booked a once-off pretax profit of €420.4 million on the sale to the State of the West-Link bridge. A beneficiary of these deals was NTR's 25.6 per cent shareholder One51, led by Philip Lynch, which raised €150 million from investors and saw the start of trading in its shares on a grey market.
Insurer Quinn Direct snapped up health insurer Bupa in a transaction valued at up to €150 million, but its owner Seán Quinn secured a "radical" cut in Bupa's price after the Government closed a loophole that would have enabled him to avoid making risk equalisation payments to VHI for three years.
Paul Coulson's Ardagh Glass bought out the European glass unit of British group Rexam in a €660 million deal that brought Ardagh's annual sales to some €1.25 billion.
Elsewhere, financiers John Magnier, JP McManus, Dermot Desmond and Denis Brosnan bought Chrysalis Radio for £170 million (€252.3 million) in a deal that gave them command of the third-largest commercial radio business in Britain.
Arnotts chairman Richard Nesbitt SC rejected a bid for the department store operator from the family of former chairman Michael O'Connor as a "stunt", designed to strengthen their hand as they prepared to sell their 24.57 per cent of the business.
Mr Nesbitt ultimately bought their interest for €40 million. A fortnight later, Niall McFadden's Boundary Capital paid €40 million for an indirect stake of 28 per cent in Arnotts and Anglo Irish Bank paid €25 million for an indirect holding of 17 per cent.
Three deals not done proved noteworthy:
CRH ended talks to buy up to $4.5 billion worth of assets from Cemex, its Mexican concrete rival, after the two groups failed to agree a price. Still, CRH chief Liam O'Mahony spent almost €1 billion on acquisitions in the first half of the year and followed that with a $350 million deal to buy four US firms.
EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes blocked Ryanair's bid for Aer Lingus. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus chief Dermot Mannion brought a torrent of adverse publicity on the airline in the middle of the fallow news season in August when it withdrew its Shannon-Heathrow service. The move was branded "insane" by his pugnacious counterpart at Ryanair, Michael O'Leary. Aer Lingus rejected his demands for an egm.
A bid in March by Irish Continental Group chief and 15.7 per cent shareholder Eamonn Rothwell and co-managers for the ferry operator ended in stalemate almost eight months later. One51 and Doyle Shipping built up a 25.4 per cent stake but failed to make a bid.
Having amassed 29.8 per cent of the business, developer Liam Carroll will be the ultimate kingmaker in the stand-off.
Mr Carroll was busy on other fronts, increasing his Greencore shareholding to 29.5 per cent. He is widely assumed to have designs on Greencore's extensive landbanks in Carlow and Co Cork, which are likely to be redeveloped following the group's exit from the sugar business.
Meanwhile, the taxman caught up with some well-known defaulters. The best-known businessman to make a settlement was Seán Barron, the founder and driving force behind the Pamela Scott women's fashion chain, who paid €6.41 million.
Mr Barron had plenty of cash at his disposal, having realised some €22 million in October 2006 when he sold Broadlands, his six-bedroom house on 2.82 acres opposite Killiney Golf Club in south Dublin.
Other big tax settlements included a payment of €4 million from the estate of the Des Traynor, architect of the Ansbacher scheme and a close associate of the late Charles Haughey.
Former Fine Gael high-flyer Michael Lowry, now an Independent TD, and his refrigeration company Garuda made settlements totalling €1.45 million over payments he received from businessman Ben Dunne, former chief of Dunnes Stores. Retired Fianna Fáil senator Eddie Bohan, an auctioneer with strong ties to the licensed trade, settled his tax liabilities for €2 million.
Bottom of the pile this year is Donal Kinsella, former deputy chairman of Kenmare Resources who was forced off its board after a night-time "incident" at its titanium mine in Mozambique.
Mr Kinsella does not wear pyjamas.
After retiring to bed on the night of a company dinner, he went three times in his naked state to the bedroom of the female company secretary. He said he was sleepwalking.
Kenmare shareholders had little sympathy, voting decisively at an egm to remove him from the board.
