Former Esat Digifone chief executive Mr Barry Maloney has denied he sought to postpone the flotation of Esat Telecom for personal financial reasons.
Counsel for Mr Denis O'Brien said the flotation of Esat Digifone would have resulted in a higher financial return for Mr Maloney than the Esat Telecom flotation. Mr Maloney wanted to put off the initial public offering of Esat Telecom to allow Esat Digifone to float first, Mr Eoin McGonigal SC said.
Mr Maloney earned £40 million through the sale of Esat Digifone to British Telecom last year, the Moriarty tribunal heard.
Mr McGonigal also said the investors who would have bought into the Esat Telecom flotation would not have been interested in Esat Digifone's flotation afterwards.
Mr Maloney said he disagreed Esat Telecom's flotation would not have been in either his or Esat Digifone's interest, though he did agree the flotation was not as much in Esat Digifone's interest as Esat Telecom's.
Mr Maloney said he wanted the Esat Telecom flotation postponed because of conversations he had with Mr O'Brien about a £100,000 payment to Mr Michael Lowry, the fact that the Moriarty tribunal was starting and because a statement on the setting-up of the tribunal was being included in the Esat Telecom flotation prospectus. He agreed that delaying the flotation would have been damaging for both Esat Telecom and Esat Digifone.
Mr Maloney also denied he resigned from Esat Digifone in December 1996 to improve his financial position. He resigned because his personal relationship with Mr O'Brien was deteriorating, he said.
Mr McGonigal said far from resigning to protect the friendship, Mr Maloney left the company because of a dispute over how it was being run and because he wanted his share options reviewed. Mr Maloney said he did not agree with this.
Mr Maloney said that during the bid for the second mobile phone licence, an undertaking was given to the Government that Esat Digifone would have its initial public offering within three years of its network launch. He said last year the sale of Esat Digifone to British Telecom was within that time.
Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, questioned Mr Maloney about a letter written in October 1997 by Mr Michael Walsh of IIU Nominees Ltd, an Esat Digifone shareholder.
"Denis admits to having evil thoughts but has confirmed that these thoughts were never brought to fruition," the letter read. Mr Maloney said he thought this might have referred to an intermediary in the payment to Mr Lowry and that the payment never went through.
Mr Walsh's letter also stated: "There may have been decisions relating to Esat Telecom which could be politically influenced but if that were the case it has nothing to do with Esat Digifone."
The tribunal was adjourned until further notice.