FAILED BIDS:BUSINESSMAN DECLAN Ganley, a member of the losing Cellstar consortium in the competition for the second mobile phone licence in 1996, welcomed the findings of the report.
Mr Ganley, who is suing the State and other parties in relation to the licence competition, said it was a “good day for Ireland because it shows the Republic works”.
However, the Persona consortium, which finished as runner-up to Esat Digifone, declined to comment yesterday.
A spokesman said it was considering the findings and would comment in due course.
Persona, which comprised Motorola, Sigma Wireless, Unisource and ESB, is also suing the State in relation to the way the competition was run. These legal actions are due for mention tomorrow in the Supreme Court.
Persona scored 410 points in the competition that was run to decide the licence winner, putting it second behind Esat, which scored 432 points.
Mr Ganley’s Cellstar consortium finished sixth and last with 268 points. Cellstar comprised Comcast, RTÉ, Bord Na Móna and CGI Ltd. RTÉ and Bord Na Móna both declined to comment yesterday on the findings.
Mr Ganley described himself as a “cheated bidder” on Twitter. Speaking to The Irish Times, he said: “We now know the playing field was anything but level.”
In all, six groups applied for the licence. Irish Mobicall, which finished third in the competition, was headed by Irish businessmen Martin Naughton, Lochlann Quinn and Kieran Corrigan.
The group also included three international institutional partners: SBC Communications (formerly South Western Bell); Deutsche Telekom, the privatised German national telephone operator; and Tele Danmark, the 51 per cent state-owned Danish operator.
The international heavyweights each held a 25 per cent interest, with Naughton, Quinn and Corrigan holding the balance. None was available to comment yesterday.
Irish Cellular, which included Sir Anthony O’Reilly in its consortium, finished fourth. Princes Holdings, then an associate of Independent News Media, and INM itself held 50 per cent between them in Irish Cellular.
US-based telecoms giant ATT; United and Philips Communications; and Riordan Communications were the other members of the consortium.
INM, whose biggest shareholder is Denis O’Brien, declined to comment yesterday on the Moriarty findings.
Eurofone was ranked fifth. It was a joint venture between Swedish investment company Kinnevik and Luxembourg-headquartered telecoms giant Millicom.
There was an Irish flavour to the Eurofone consortium. State-owned transport company CIÉ had an option over 10 per cent of the shares of the trust, with 30 per cent to be offered on the Irish Stock Exchange.
