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4: Quinn Group

Concrete foundations help health move

Monday, 23 April 2007

The Quinn Group, which had modest beginnings in Co Fermanagh in 1973, has grown to be a vast conglomerate whose interests range from glass to insurance.

Other interests include building products manufacture, hotels, packaging and property.

In February this year the company made one of its most daring acquisitions, paying an estimated £99.4m for the health insurance services arm of private healthcare giant BUPA’s operation in the Republic.

The move meant that the health insurance contracts of 475,000 BUPA Ireland customers were no longer under threat.

BUPA had previously decided to withdraw from the market because of compensation payments it would have to make to the state-owned health insurance provider VHI.

In a move which mirrored Quinn’s aggressive entry some years ago into the insurance market, the company announced shortly after the takeover of BUPA that it would freeze prices for the rest of this year, immediately putting VHI on the back foot.

In March Mr Quinn told a business conference in Cavan that his group has grown by more than 30% every year since 1973 but he expects growth will slow over the next five years.

Non-group business such as his international property interests are, however, expected to accelerate over the same period.

He suggested that his next big move would be into power.

He already owns a small wind farm on the Cavan/Fermanagh border and he has had recent meetings with Government ministers and the Irish power regulator to explore the possibility of developing power stations and further wind farms.

The group’s insurance subsidiary, Quinn Direct, is now one of the main engines of growth for the conglomerate in Ireland.

It posted a £226m pre-tax profit last year, an increase of 39% on the previous year’s figure.

The origins of the group were humble.

Mr Quinn realised that the family farm was literally sitting on a fortune.

He used the natural deposits of the farmland in Fermanagh to make construction products and quarrying material and thus began his rise to becoming one of the richest individuals in Ireland.