New book claims Quinn could have kept control of businesses

In the same week as Sean Quinn has been asked to give State evidence in the criminal case against former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick, a new book detailing the downfall of the Quinn family’s business empire is set to hit bookshelves nationwide.
Quinn’s story, from the moment the Ballyconnell businessman first began to lose grip on his businesses, when the High Court ruled in March 2010 for Quinn Insurance to be placed into administration, has been well told, the authors accept. The subsequent appointment of a share receiver over Quinn manufacturing in April 2011 and the drawn out legal proceedings concerning former-Anglo Irish Bank, IBRC liquidation litigation since have been equally well publicised. But headlines are one thing, the immense detail of what actually occurred in the run up to, during and after these major junctures are what the 330-plus pages of ‘Citizen Quinn- A Man, An Empire, and a Family’ claims to explore.
“It’s a story so big you can’t cover it in a single article, so detailed it wouldn’t fit into a single programme,” co-author of the new book Gavin Daly from Poles, Cavan told The Anglo-Celt.
“A book is really the only way we felt we could give the subject matter the space to breathe. And, as we know the story itself is still going, still unfolding”.
The business reporter with the Sunday Times, and formerly Sunday Business Post, is preparing for the book launch with former investigative reporter for Prime Time, Ian Kehoe in Crannog Bookshop, Cavan Town, on Wednesday, October 9.
Gavin admits it was at times difficult writing a warts and all account of a man whose decisions often polarise opinion nationally, but who still holds huge sway closer to home, but says a second author added balance to proceedings.

Perceptions and ‘truths’
“Saying that, I still came at it from the point of view of what I know. Quinn Insurance was over the road from where I lived, and Sean Jr as I knew him was only a few years younger than me. I grew up knowing the size of what Sean Quinn achieved. I also know there are a lot of journalists who’ve written about what’s happened to Sean Quinn, commented on the supporter rallies but who never set foot in Cavan, or will ever understand why they happened.
“But you drive to Ballyconnell, and on the road to Derrylin and you’ll see just what Sean Quinn did for the area. Knowing that background doesn’t take away from any objectivity, in fact I feel it gives a better frame of reference considering everything with it. If you travel there you see what the Quinns are fighting for, and why they’re fighting so hard. It’s their lifetime of work.”
Both journalists agree on the basic principle of how the book was scripted - ‘present the facts, nothing but the facts and let people make up their minds after that’. It’s admirable, but not always an easy task with so many versions of the ‘truth’ out there.
Ian tells The Celt: “The way it has been portrayed up to now is some kind of titanic battle between Sean Quinn and Anglo Irish Bank, but you look into it deeper you begin to realise there’s far more than that.”
He insists that it wasn’t Anglo who effectively forced Sean Quinn out of the control of his companies, but the series of international banks and bondholders who reportedly lost faith in his ability to repay the debt owed.
Aside from the money Sean Quinn borrowed from Anglo, the Group still owed in the region of €1.3bn to other non-executive directors.

Surprises
Asked if anything surprised the authors, Ian says for him it was the number of chances Sean Quinn had to avoid what would later amount to the eventual collapse of his companies.
“In the build up to the appointment of administrators to Quinn Insurance he was given multiple chances by the Financial Regulator to remedy the problems. The Regulator viewed it as a very straight process - you put in the money and you get to keep your company. On the other hand Sean Quinn viewed it as an opportunity for negotiation. Ultimately the Regulator doesn’t negotiate on those kind of things so they took control of the company. But that process went on for months and months, all in the background.
“Or, take the collapse of the manufacturing group. The lenders asked Sean Quinn for two things. They asked him for one - give us a little bit of debt for equity, saying so we’ll write off an awful lot of your debt if you give us some equity in the Quinn Group. Quinn said ‘no’. Two - they asked him to pay a higher rate of interest on his debt. Again Quinn said ‘no’. If he had done one or other, or both of those things he would still be in control of his businesses to this day. But he wouldn’t do it, he wouldn’t compromise. They offered him that deal time and time and time again, still the answer remained ‘no’.
“In relation to the overseas property assets he again had a number of chances to do a deal with the bank, he again was given a number of opportunities to strike an accord but he said ‘no’. At all avenues throughout the entire process Sean Quinn was offered numerous chances to save different parts of his businesses but he just didn’t want to do that.
“With the courts too which saw him go to prison. He just stuck to his own guns, refused to countenance any compromise, or any deal.”
The authors contend that the steadfastness which once served Sean Quinn so well in making deal after successful deal during the boomtimes, also contributed to his downfall.

No ‘Plan B’
“We’re talking about a man whose plan A was we will pay back all the money”, Gavin says. “There was no plan B. Sean Quinn believed he could, but the banks doubted that. That’s why they and the bondholders moved against him. By the time Sean Quinn knew the banks were not prepared to do a deal it was too late, and far too late to come up with a plan B.”
Gavin concludes the Quinn story is not as simple as good guys versus bad guys. He says Sean Quinn and his family throughout all that has transpired have been at times unfairly caricatured as criminal masterminds, and he insists that there’s no evidence from his findings to support that view.
“I don’t think there was a lot of malice in what he done. The question that’s always asked is why did he do it? He’s already said it was perhaps greed. But I don’t ever think it was the greed to make more money in the personal sense.
“We’re talking about a businessman here who came from very little, who put everything he had into his family and his businesses, and if it was a greed to make more money, that money I’m certain would have been spent on investing again into the business, build more facilities and make more jobs.”
The Quinn family did not contribute directly to the writing of the book, opting instead to focus their energies and attentions on fighting their  main case, the claim that Anglo illegally made €2.34 billion loans to their companies. Sean Quinn and his family have also not ruled out the possibility of releasing their own book detailing the Quinn story in the future. However Gavin believes that most will have sympathy for the human dimension of Quinn’s story of triumph and loss.
“They’ve had hard days, there’s no doubt about that, and anyone that we’ve spoken to, even on the ‘other side’, so to speak, have even gone so far as to say it’s a very sad story at what’s happened to the Quinns. There’s not many winners in all that’s gone on.”

Legal editor with The Irish Independent Dearbhail McDonald will host a public interview with Gavin Daly and Ian Kehoe on Wednesday, October 9, at 7.30pm in Crannóg Bookshop Cavan. The event is free but space is limited. To book tickets contact (049) 4332861.