Merrion Capital executives preparing management-led buyout of company

Merrion Capital Group’s head of private clients Shane Nolan is preparing a management-led buyout of the firm, according to sources.

A group, which also includes Ivan Fox, chairman of the company’s fund management unit, is in talks to take control of Merrion in an accord that will involve chief executive John Conroy selling his stake.

Mr Conroy may leave the firm he co-founded in 1999, sources said. Allen & Co, the New York-based investment firm, will also sell its minority stake.

A spokesman for Merrion’s PR firm, didn’t immediately respond to calls seeking comment. & Mr Conroy declined to comment.

Earlier last month, it was reported that the executives, as well New York-based securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald, were contenders to buy Merrion. The company was put up for sale for about €10m.

Ronan Reid, head of Cantor’s Irish unit, declined to comment yesterday.

The sale will result in Merrion’s fourth ownership change in a decade. In 2005, Iceland’s Landsbanki acquired control of the company before management bought it back four years later, after Icelandic authorities seized the lender. Mr Conroy and Mr Nolan led an shareholder restructuring in 2010, which resulted in a number of top executives leaving the firm.

Merrion Capital Group had about €8m of net assets at the end of 2012, according to the firm’s most recent set of accounts.

The firm has advised on corporate finance deals such as Aer Lingus’ initial public offering in 2006 and the 2009 takeover of Eircom by Singapore Technologies Telemedia.