Denis O'Brien

Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel and Communicorp.[1][3] He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and is also Ireland's richest native-born citizen.[3][4] His business interests have also extended to aircraft leasing (Aergo Capital), utilities support (Actavo), petroleum (Topaz Energy), and football (soccer), being a minority shareholder of Celtic F.C. As former chairman of the Esat Digifone consortium, O'Brien was questioned by the Moriarty Tribunal, which investigated the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat, among other things.

For other people named Denis O'Brien, see Denis O'Brien (disambiguation).

Denis O'Brien
Born (1958-04-19) 19 April 1958
Cork, Ireland[1]
EducationUniversity College Dublin
Boston College
OccupationBusinessman
Known forOwner of Communicorp
Net worthUS$3.1 Billion (February 2021)[2]
TitleExecutive Chairman & Interim CEO, Digicel
Spouse(s)
Catherine Walsh
​
(m. 1997)​
Children4

Early life

O'Brien was born in the city of Cork and grew up in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin. His father was a salesman for a veterinary pharmaceutical company, and he often accompanied his father on business trips, where he learned how to "sell and to present". He attended The High School in Rathgar, and although he was suspended for disciplinary problems, his talent for rugby was such that he was asked to return so that he could participate in a championship for the school.[1]

He studied politics, history and logic at University College Dublin, graduating in 1977. After winning a scholarship from Boston College while attending UCD, he completed an MBA in corporate finance there in 1982. Upon his return to Dublin, he was employed as an assistant manager in a local bank, but left that job and became a personal assistant to Tony Ryan, owner of an aircraft leasing company.[1]

Career

O'Brien has spent most of his career in the communications technology and mass media industries. He has also been a part owner of energy, aerospace, and industrial service companies.

Communicorp
Main article: Communicorp

O'Brien is the owner of Communicorp,[5] a media holding company operating across Europe. He started the company in Ireland in 1989,[6][7] where it has owned independent radio stations like Newstalk and Today FM.[8][9] The company expanded to markets in Eastern European countries, later selling some of its stations to local operators.[10][11] In 2014, Communicorp expanded to the United Kingdom, acquiring eight radio stations across the country;[12] in 2017, Communicorp moved its UK radio stations to a new independent company, Communicorp UK, of which O'Brien owns 98% of the shares.[13]

Esat Telecom and Esat Digifone
Main articles: BT Ireland and O2 (Ireland)

In 1991, O'Brien formed a telecommunications consortium called Esat Telecom to compete with the state-owned Telecom Eireann.[14] In partnership with Telenor, Norway's state telecom operator, Esat formed Esat Digifone, which made a successful bid for Ireland's second GSM mobile licence.[15][16] Circumstances around the awarding of the licence to Esat Digifone became the subject of the Moriarty Tribunal.[17][18]

On 7 November 1997, Esat Telecom Group plc held an initial public offering and was listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ.[19] In 2000, Telenor made a bid for control of the company, but O'Brien sold it to BT, reportedly making €250 million from the sale.[20][21]

Aergo Capital
Main article: Aergo Capital

In 1999, O'Brien co-founded aircraft leasing company Aergo Capital, of which he owned an 80% stake. From its inception until 2014, Aergo traded more than 150 aircraft with a gross value of over €791 million (approximately $1 billion). In October 2014, O'Brien and his partner, Fred Browne, sold the company to CarVal, a US investment firm; Browne remained with the new company as CEO.[22]

Independent News & Media
Main article: Independent News & Media

In the late 2000s, O'Brien began purchasing shares of Independent News & Media (INM), ultimately spending an estimated €500 million to amass a 29.9% stake in the company.[23][24][25] O'Brien clashed with the company's board, especially former owner Tony O'Reilly,[26] who stepped down from his position as CEO in 2009 and sold most of his INM shares in 2014.[27] In April 2019, O'Brien and Dermont Desmond, INM's second largest shareholder at the time, sold their shares to the Belgian media group Mediahuis; O'Brien reportedly received €43.5m as part of the deal.[28]

Although he never owned a majority stake in INM, O'Brien was at times accused of exerting significant influence at the company. In 2014, allegations arose that Stephen Rae, a group editor at INM, ordered amendments to a column by Sunday Independent editor Anne Harris that contained references to O'Brien.[29] In 2015, Paul Meagher, a solicitor for O'Brien, reportedly called INM solicitor Simon McAleese in 2012 to block a story related to environment minister Phil Hogan.[30]

In March 2018, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) in Ireland applied to the High Court of Ireland to appoint inspectors to Independent News and Media to investigate an alleged data breach.[31] According to an affidavit filed by the ODCE, invoices for the data interrogation were discharged by Blaydon Limited.[32]

In June 2019, Independent News & Media was sold to the Belgian group Mediahuis[33] and de-listed from the Euronext Dublin exchange, thus ending O'Briens involvement in the group. It was reported that he lost in excess of €450m in total on his INM investment.[23]

Digicel
Main article: Digicel

In 2001, O'Brien founded Digicel, a telecom company that operates in the Caribbean, South America, and Asia Pacific. Using the cash from his sale of Esat Telecom, O'Brien used Digicel to build a wireless network in Jamaica.[34] That same year, Digicel expanded into the South Pacific. As of 2019, Digicel operated in 31 countries.[35]

Along with Digicel, O'Brien created the Digicel Foundation, which has worked with local organizations to develop community services, build schools and health centers, and support recovery efforts.[36][37] After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, O'Brien pledged €3.5 million to assist recovery efforts.[38][39] In 2012, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded O'Brien with the National Order of Honour and Merit for his investments, contributions and promotion of the country,[40] and in 2015, O'Brien received honorary membership of the Order of Jamaica for his service to the country's telecommunications industry.[41]

Actavo
Main article: Actavo

In 2012, O'Brien purchased Siteserv, a utilities support company, from IBRC for €45m; in 2015, the company was renamed Actavo.[42] Actavo was bought and controlled through O'Brien's firm Millington on the Isle of Man.[43]

In 2016, Actavo expanded into the United States through the purchase of Atlantic Engineering Services, a structural engineering firm.[44] Actavo was also involved in the installation of fibre networks for Digicel in the Caribbean.[45]

Topaz Energy
Main article: Topaz Energy

In December 2013, O'Brien purchased €300 million in debt owed by Topaz Energy to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. In December 2014, Topaz's parent company, Kendrick Investments, announced it would buy all of Esso's Irish operations.[46][47]

In December 2015, Alimentation Couche-Tard, a Canadian convenience store company, announced that it planned to buy Topaz.[48] The sale was completed in February 2016; Topaz had more than 2,000 employees and close to 35% of the consumer market in Ireland at the time of the sale.[49]

Economic and financial career

O'Brien has attended the World Economic Forum's annual winter meeting in Davos, Switzerland, alongside other billionaires like Bill Gates and George Soros.[50][51]

In 2000, O'Brien became a director of the Bank of Ireland, and in September 2005, he was named a deputy governor of the bank. In September 2006, he resigned as both deputy governor and as a member of the bank's court (board).[52] O'Brien reportedly resigned due to increased demands related to his international business interests.[52]

Football

Between 2008 and 2016, O'Brien gave the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) as much as €12 million to help pay the salaries of senior officials within the organisation, including Giovanni Trapattoni.[53][54] In 2018, O'Brien was named Honorary Life President of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).[55]

In 2006, O'Brien purchased a 2.82% stake in Glasgow-based Celtic F.C. from former manager Martin O'Neill.[56] As of June 2018, O'Brien reportedly had increased his ownership to 13%.[57]

Other interests

In 1998, O'Brien purchased Planal SA, the holding company for the Quinta do Lago golf resort in Portugal.[58]

O'Brien supported the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, for which he was the chairman of the Games Organising Committee and later the Chairman of Council of Patrons.[59][60][61]

O'Brien is a director on the United States board of Concern Worldwide, a humanitarian aid organisation.[62]

O'Brien has worked with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, O'Brien worked with CGI's Haiti Action Network and the Digicel Haiti Foundation to help rebuild the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince.[63][64] In 2010, O'Brien was named a goodwill ambassador for the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, by Mayor Jean Yves Jason, who cited O'Brien's help with disaster recovery efforts after the earthquake.[65] In 2012, O'Brien received a Clinton Global Citizen Award from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, in large part due to his disaster relief efforts in Haiti.[39] He has also contributed to building 50 primary and secondary schools in the 18 months following the earthquake.[40][66][67] In September 2016, then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sent a campaign email criticising Hillary Clinton's relationship with O'Brien, about which O'Brien declined to comment.[68][69]

O'Brien has been a member of the Trilateral Commission.[70] O'Brien donated €2,500 to the campaign of independent candidate Mary Davis for the 2011 Irish presidential election.[71]

Moriarty Tribunal
Main article: Moriarty Tribunal

In 1997, the Moriarty Tribunal was established to look into allegations against two Irish bureaucrats, Charles Haughey and Michael Lowry.[72] After 14 years, the Tribunal's final report found, among other things, that Lowry, Ireland's then energy and communications minister, assisted O'Brien in his bid to secure a mobile phone contract for Esat Digifone.[72] The tribunal found that this happened after Fine Gael received a $50,000 donation from O'Brien via a circuitous route, although the tribunal also acknowledged that the money was not intended as a payment. The tribunal concluded that Lowry gave "substantive information to Denis O'Brien, of significant value and assistance to him in securing the [mobile] licence" on at least two separate occasions.[73][74] However, because the Tribunal was not a court of law, its findings were legally "sterile".[75]

Sam Smyth, a radio show host that aired on one of O’Brien's networks, claimed he was fired as a result of his reporting on the Moriarty Tribunal.[76] Today FM responded to the claim, stating that "the decision was made to address a decline in listenership and was part of an initiative to improve programming quality." The Today FM board supported the decision, which was one of several programming changes made by Willy O'Reilly.[77]

Relationship with the media

In 2012, O'Brien allegedly threatened to sue journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne over statements in Browne's articles that O'Brien claimed were defamatory.[78] The Sunday Independent criticized the lawsuit as an attempt to "instill a fear of financial ruin".[78]

In February 2013, O'Brien sued the Irish Daily Mail for defamation over his numerous appearances in RTÉ news reports on the relief effort after the Haiti earthquake. The court awarded O'Brien €150,000.[79] The case was the first time a journalist had attempted to use the honest opinion defence before a jury at the High Court since the Defamation Act 2009 became law.[80]

In August 2015, the editor-in-chief of satirical website Waterford Whispers News, Colm Williamson received a cease and desist order from O'Brien's solicitor to remove a satirical article about O'Brien.[81] Lawyers for O'Brien also demanded that a reprint of the story be removed from Broadsheet.ie.[82]

In 2019, O'Brien began an action for defamation against the Sunday Business Post over the articles published in the newspaper in March 2015.[83] The articles, which centred around a confidential Price WaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report given to the government in November 2008 on the exposure of Ireland's banks in 2008, identified O'Brien as being among the 22 biggest borrowers from Irish banks in 2008.[84] O'Brien claimed the articles defamed him and injured his reputation and also alleged malicious publication.[84] The jury found in the defendant's favour and Justice Barton declared that the case was dismissed with an order for costs against O’Brien.[84][85]

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) debt

Through the acquisitions of Siteserv and Topaz Energy, O'Brien at one time held hundreds of millions of Euros in debt from the state-owned IBRC. In February 2013, the IBRC went into liquidation, and shortly thereafter, O'Brien asked for an extension to repay an outstanding €320m in loans. O'Brien claimed that he had previously received verbal confirmation for a loan extension from former IBRC CEO Mike Aynsley, but Aynsley's position was terminated when the bank went into liquidation.[86]

The matter became public in May 2015, when TD Catherine Murphy attempted to raise it in the Dáil Éireann.[87] According to Murphy, O'Brien allegedly wrote the IBRC's special liquidator, Kieran Wallace, seeking the repayment terms he had verbally secured from Aynsley; both Aynsley and O'Brien denied the claims.[88]

On 16 June 2015, O'Brien sued the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the Government of Ireland and the Attorney General over remarks made by Murphy and Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty about his banking affairs in the Dáil Éireann. O'Brien alleged that the remarks were a breach of parliamentary privilege that violated his constitutional rights and his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.[89][90] The Oireachtas Committee on Procedures and Privileges previously rejected O'Briens request to sanction Murphy over her allegations about his financial arrangements, which he claimed had breached parliamentary privilege.[91]

RTÉ injunction

In 2015, O'Brien and Kieran Wallace, the special liquidator who oversaw the liquidation of IBRC, successfully applied for an injunction in Ireland's High Court preventing RTÉ from airing a report about his receipt of a low interest rate on loans from the IBRC.[92] Justice Donald Binchy, the High Court judge who granted the injunction, said that the public did not have the right to see confidential banking information of IBRC customers, and that RTÉ had failed to prove that the terms of the loan were handled improperly by the IBRC.[93]

After the judgment, several media outlets reported that Catherine Murphy had spoken, but did not provide any quotes or clips from her speech.[92] The Independent, owned by Independent News & Media, of which O'Brien then held a significant interest, reported, "Mr. O'Brien successfully stopped RTÉ from broadcasting" details about O'Brien's finances that Murphy had raised in the Daíl.[94] Several Irish media outlets ignored the injunction by publishing Murphy's comments or referring to their publication on the Oireachtas website.[95]

In mid-June 2015, Justice Binchy ruled that most of RTÉ's report on Denis O'Brien's financial relationship with the IBRC could be published.[96] On 17 June 2015, RTÉ published what it called "a curtailed version" of the story, claiming that two paragraphs of the original story could not be printed because they were still covered by the High Court's injunction. The article was accompanied by a timeline of events between February and June 2013.[86]

O'Brien defended the injunction in an Irish Times op-ed piece, stating that he had been shocked that somebody took confidential files from a bank, altered them, and then leaked them to the press. He claimed to have been vilified by enemies, competitors, politicians, and others for trying to defend his privacy.[97]

IBRC Commission of investigation
Main article: IBRC commission of investigation

On 10 June 2015, a Commission of investigation was established to inquire into IBRC transactions that lost €10 million or more between 21 January 2009 and 7 February 2013.[98] The commission was initially chaired by retired High Court Judge Daniel O'Keeffe, but in July 2015, Judge Brian Cregan replaced Judge O'Keeffe as the commission's chair and sole member.[99] The terms of the commission were updated in 2016 to focus first on IBRC's sale of Siteserv to O'Brien in 2012, based on claims by TD Catherine Murphy in the Daíl Éireann; Murphy was asked to appear before the commission in February 2019, several months after criticising the amount of time it had taken the commission to complete its inquiry, but as of May 2019, she had not made herself available for testimony.[100][101]

Personal life

In August 1997, O'Brien married Catherine Walsh, who helped Communicorp expand into the Czech Republic and who earlier was the head of marketing for Independent Radio Sales.[102] The couple have four children.[1]

In June 2000, O'Brien set up the Iris O'Brien Foundation, named after his mother, through which he coordinates many of his philanthropic efforts.[103][104] In 2006, UCD awarded O'Brien an honorary doctorate.[105]

Wealth and residences

As of February 2020, Forbes estimates O'Brien's wealth as approximately $3.2 billion.[106]

Some time after his purchase of Quinta do Lago in 1998, but before Esat Telecom's sale to BT in 2000, O'Brien sold his home in Dublin and established a primary residence in Portugal.[107] Media reports have suggested that the move was spurred by a then-existing exemption to the capital gains tax in the Irish-Portuguese tax treaty, which reportedly would have saved O'Brien about €63 million in taxes.[107]

While considering the flotation of Digicel on the New York Stock Exchange, a March 2006 filing to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) listed O'Brien's residential address as Sliema, Malta. Although O'Brien has remained silent about his change of address, media have speculated that the mediterranean island's lack of taxes on assets or income brought into the country was the primary incentive for the move.[108]

See also

Further reading

References
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  8. "Communicorp seals purchase of Emap radio stations". Reuters. 11 January 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
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  89. "O'Brien takes action over Dáil remarks on finances". RTÉ. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015. Mr O'Brien is seeking various declarations arising from speeches made in the Dáil, under privilege, by Independent TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty. ... Senior Counsel, Michael Cush told Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns that the proceedings were against the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, Ireland and the Attorney General.
  90. "Denis O'Brien launches legal action against Irish state over banking remarks". The Guardian. London. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  91. Juno McEnroe; Ann Cahill (11 June 2015). "Oireachtas group rejects O'Brien's Dáil privilege abuse claim against Murphy". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 18 June 2015. An Oireachtas committee has rejected demands from businessman Denis O'Brien to sanction Independent TD Catherine Murphy for making allegations about his bank deals in the Dáil. The Committee on Procedures and Privileges (CPP) also rejected claims the TD abused Dáil privilege when she made the claims. O'Brien wrote to Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett last month complaining Ms Murphy had made "false and inaccurate" statements about his personal banking arrangements.
  92. "Ireland's media silenced over MP's speech about Denis O'Brien". The Guardian. 29 May 2015.
  93. Duffy, Rónán. "Here's why RTÉ's news story about Denis O'Brien was blocked by the courts". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  94. Ryan, Philip (29 May 2015). "Murphy uses Dáil privilege to raise O'Brien finances". The Independent.
  95. Fiach Kelly; Fiona Gartland (30 May 2015). "Oireachtas sources believe Catherine Murphy did not break Dáil rules". Irish Times. Retrieved 3 June 2015. Independent TD did not abuse privilege when commenting about Denis O'Brien ... It is an unprecedented development that the mainstream media have been prevented from publishing privileged remarks in the Dáil due to the threat of legal action. ...Ms Murphy's comments in the Dáil were published on the Oireachtas website, and it is understood neither Mr O'Brien nor his representatives have contacted Oireachtas authorities. ...It is understood the application was contemplated in relation to the publication by the website Broadsheet.ie of the full statement made by Ms Murphy in the Dáil about Mr O'Brien's finances. It was contacted by solicitors on Thursday and asked to remove the post, claiming it was in breach of the High Court order in O'Brien v RTÉ. The site was given a deadline of 7pm, but did not remove the post.
  96. "Court rules most of O'Brien report can be broadcast". RTÉ. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015. Lawyers for Mr O'Brien said they were no longer opposing the publication of the script of the proposed report by RTÉ's Business Editor David Murphy. However, IBRC continued its objections to those parts of the script it said referred to legal advice. RTÉ agreed that one paragraph of the script should not be published, but argued that the issue of legal advice was already in the public domain due to remarks made by Pearse Doherty in the Dáil. Judge Binchy ruled there was a difference between what Doherty said in the Dáil and what was in the script and ruled the paragraph objected to by IBRC should not be published.
  97. Denis O'Brien (2 June 2015). "Denis O'Brien: 'I have never experienced this level of hatred'". Irish Times. Retrieved 3 June 2015. What shocked me most of all was that someone would take files from a major Irish bank, tamper with them and leak them to RTÉ. ... Many decent people who had loans transferred to Nama, or had loans with Anglo Irish Bank/IBRC were thrown to the wolves. ...I have known people who took their own lives, people who lost everything including their homes and their marriages. Also many people who have had nervous breakdowns. The toll all this has taken on the "community" that makes up our country is quite shocking. I think it is regrettable that there is such a feeding frenzy to spread rumours and selectively leak information to point- score, challenge a competitor or simply do somebody down. It is done behind the cloak of secrecy and anonymity and the principle that "my enemy's enemy is my friend". Social media being used for this purpose is crowded with cowards. At a particular point in time when foreign multinationals were at their most nervous about their deposits in Irish banks I decided to be contrarian. I took a decision that Digicel would repatriate its cash deposits from US banks amounting to more than $600 million and place them with two Irish banks as a vote of confidence. Both banks asked my permission to tell a small number of foreign clients of this decision to help stop further outflows and this was granted. At that time, and subsequently, I was talking up Ireland internationally as a recovery story. I wanted to make a significant financial gesture of support at home. This was to show solidarity with Ireland but also to support the efforts of Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in stabilising the Irish banks and slow future outflow of deposits. ...

    I have been dragged into a media frenzy because of RTÉ's attempts to publish my private bank details and Deputy Murphy's desire to distort them. I have never experienced the level of abuse, venom and hatred resulting from taking a stand to protect privacy in relation to my financial affairs.
  98. Ryan, Órla. "After several rows, Sinn Féin votes against IBRC inquiry - but it's still happening". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  99. McDonal, Dearbhail (9 September 2015). "Family first as High Court president to retire early". The Independent. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  100. Carswell, Simon (11 May 2019). "Siteserv inquiry seeks to compel Catherine Murphy to appear over deal claims". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  101. McGee, Harry. "TD who raised issue of Siteserv sale to Dáil criticises inquiry's progress". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  102. "The man who makes millionaires". independent. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  103. Murtagh, Peter. "Questioning O'Brien's charity motives clearly rankles". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  104. Lake, Howard (3 April 2017). "O'Brien foundation gave €5.5 million last year". UK Fundraising. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  105. "Alma Mater confers Denis O'Brien with honorary Doctor of Laws". 15 November 2006.
  106. "Denis O'Brien". Forbes. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  107. "Denis O'Brien saves €63m in tax stratagem". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  108. Keena, Colm (15 September 2006). "O'Brien makes pre-flotation move to Malta". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 March 2015.
  109. Keena, Colm (10 July 2010). "Plucky David or pirate of the Caribbean?". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
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