Desmond firm ‘aided deal’

FINANCIER Dermot Desmond’s company prevented “World War 3” breaking out between Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp Group and Norwegian State telecoms firm Telenor, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr O’Brien described the benefit of having Mr Desmond’s International Investment & Underwriting Ltd (IIU) on board when “civil servants from Norway” and “faster-moving Irish entrepreneurs” clashed as the Irish-Norwegian consortium made final preparations ahead of receiving the country’s second mobile phone licence.

“IIU were a very good shareholder for Esat Digifone ” Mr O’Brien told the tribunal.

“They (Telenor) were lucky to have IIU there because if this was a 50:50 venture there would have been World War 3.”

Documentation being examined by the tribunal legal team reflects tension between Mr O’Brien’s company and the Norwegians in the days preceding the issuing of the second mobile phone licence to Digifone on May 16, 1996.

Mr O’Brien said: “It would have been difficult to keep the whole ship going in the one direction and IIU....guided us through fairly choppy waters. IIU did really add something to this project and they did step in and did satisfy Telenor, no matter what Telenor says.” Mr O’Brien said Telenor had pushed for a financial guarantee and when they got it they said they didn’t know anything about it. Mr O’Brien said it was untrue that he had signed the IIU document independently. “There was no barney over this; there was no fight. They (Telenor) were happy to sign it; they thought it was a good idea,” he said.