Why DCC, PTSB, Irish Ferries and Flutter are at the centre of a summer reshaping corporate Ireland

A wave of takeovers, buyouts and delistings is reshaping corporate Ireland, with ownership increasingly shifting to overseas investors

ICG's Irish Ferries operates on the arteries between Ireland and Britain, Britain and France, and Ireland and France.  Picture: Leon Farrell

Large Irish companies have been bought, gone private, or been moved off the stock market this summer.

In late July, in a single week, the energy group DCC agree an €8bn takeover by the US private-equity firms KKR and Energy Capital Partners. Hours later, Irish Continental Group, the owner of Irish Ferries, confirmed a €1.2bn management buyout to take itself private. Three days after that, PTSB shareholders voted to sell the bank to Austria's BAWAG for €1.6bn, ending the State's ownership of the pillar banks it rescued in the 2008 crash.