Quinn the gambler has played his last hand and should leave the table

By Matt Cooper

Friday, April 09, 2010

THE 5,500 employees of the Quinn Group are right to be fearful for the security of their jobs. Their demand for protection is entirely understandable and rational. Sympathy for them is plentiful.

But the idea that the Government should step in to force the Financial Regulator to reverse his entirely correct decision to apply to the court for the appointment of a provisional administrator to run the business is utterly wrong, no matter how much Seán Quinn himself or his employees want that.

The campaign that Quinn employees and supporters have launched is emotional and it must seem persuasive to those not in command of the real facts. The myth of Seán Quinn is a substantial one as can be seen from this representative selection of comments supplied to one website over the past week:

"This country is being run by a shower of muppets and it’s them that needs to go, not a hardworking man like Seán Quinn, who has given so much to the economy," said one contributor ... !

Another: "It’s a terrible thing to see an Irishman treated in this way without trial. An Irishman that has been forced to stop trading in the UK because of an "Irish" regulator. An Irishman employing 5,500 people (mostly on this island). An Irishman that treats his employees well. A proud Irishman humiliated in this way ...

And another: "He has almost single-handedly contributed to the tremendous improvement in the employment rate in the region. As a result of his endeavours, well-educated young people can remain living in their home counties. I’m dismayed at the speed at which the regulator placed Quinn Insurance into provisional administration; Quinn should have had more time to meet any requirements outstanding at Quinn Insurance. This move by the regulator is heavy-handed and creates anxiety among employees, customers and the general population."

While I don’t doubt the sincerity of those involved in the campaign to have Quinn Insurance returned to its original owner, the objective is bone-headed. Instead of marching on the Dáil the employees should turn their attention to their hero and point the finger of blame at him and, appropriately for a man who started in quarrying, his feet of clay.

The real truth is that Seán Quinn is entirely responsible for the mess that he has created, despite his denials, and is entirely incapable of sorting it out, despite his claim that he should just be let get on with fixing his mistakes. Quinn has ruined his own empire financially but, unfortunately, there are many other people who will bear the costs. Three years ago he engaged in reckless gambling and everyone else in the country is now paying the price for his arrogant stupidity. Quinn didn’t just invest badly in buying Anglo Irish Bank shares with his own spare cash: he borrowed excessively to do so and he also borrowed from the Quinn Insurance company without the relevant permission from the authorities. He hid the extent of his share-buying too – as the Central Bank would have investigated his suitability to own more than 10% of the bank had it known about it – and then was allowed to become involved in a highly dubious transaction to sell some of the shares to try and reduce his exposure to heavy losses.

It didn’t work. Quinn’s gambling on the stock market has cost him and his group more than €3bn, as he admitted recently in an RTÉ interview. This is far more than he had admitted previously. Quinn Group owes €2.8 bn to Anglo Irish Bank and a further €1.3bn to Barclays Bank and a group of bondholders.

The Anglo loan is a disgrace. Although it was first described in 2008 as being for "general corporate purposes", it is clear that much of it was to cover his losses on the purchase of shares in Anglo itself. The assumption that the loan was secured over the assets of the entire Quinn Group is only partly true. The bondholders and Barclays have prior preference and have to be repaid first from the sale of assets.

This is what makes their charge over assets of subsidiaries of Quinn Insurance so important. Insurance companies, as part of their entitlement to conduct business, have to hold sufficient assets that can be used to pay insurance claims.

The amount of unencumbered assets is actually €445 million less than had been thought, once proper analysis is applied. This means that instead of being solvent Quinn Insurance has a deficit of more than €200m. The big question is how Matthew Elderfield’s predecessors at the Financial Regulator’s office failed to act earlier.

The regulator has maintained it was not given the relevant information even though Quinn Insurance was required to disclose the existence of the guarantees in its solvency returns. The Quinn Group maintains the guarantees to other lenders were disclosed in the accounts of subsidiaries of Quinn Insurance, but these accounts were not available in the Companies Registration Office because the accounts for the insurance business are consolidated.

This implies the relevant information was as good as hidden, although Quinn has insisted the information was available at all times to the regulator. However, Quinn’s track record in this regard is not good. It has had a history of investing the premiums entrusted to it in businesses and properties tied either to Seán Quinn’s ownership or his stock market gambling.

Quinn Insurance received the heaviest fine ever handed down by the regulator – €3.25m in 2008 – for the improper lending of money to Quinn for his stock market gambling. The excuse that the money was subsequently repaid only cuts it so far because it would seem to have borrowed effectively from Anglo Irish, which now means us. Quinn was fined €200,000 personally and told to disengage from management of the company. It was a far lighter punishment than his recklessness deserved. There are good grounds for believing Quinn Insurance should have been taken into administration back then.

I ADMIT that in July 2008 I wrote about Quinn’s importance to the Irish economy and his willingness to create jobs in areas where nobody else, especially state agencies, would have borrowed. However, it soon became clear that his gamble on Anglo Irish was a lot bigger than had been believed and that it had not been done with his own money. As the saying goes, "when the facts change, I change my mind." The more I have learnt about Quinn’s way of doing business the less impressed I have become.

He seems to believe that all of the rules should be bent to suit him. His political lobbying of recent weeks has been jaw-dropping. Whereas he is clearly in the wrong he thinks nothing of impugning the name of the regulator and of encouraging others to do the same. He seems to think the Government should step in and return his business to him. It would be insane for it to do so.

The workers in Quinn Insurance face an uncertain future because a new owner might reduce their numbers or relocate functions, but new ownership is their best chance of survival. What happens to the wider Quinn Group is also a matter of considerable interest, but believing its future is best left to Seán Quinn flies in the face of the fact that this gambler should have played his last hand and should now leave the table.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm. Sean Quinn’s career is detailed in his book, Who really runs Ireland?

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, April 09, 2010