18 November 2007
By Gavin Daly
The founders of Ion Equity, the Dublin finance house that owns a range of businesses including Shell and Statoil, have sold shares in the business to their staff for the first time.
The firm has issued stakes to some of its investment staff in Dublin and London, including directors Patrick Hogan, David Fewer and Alex Noton.
Ion’s founders, Neil O’Leary, Ulric Kenny and Joe Devine, still own about 80 per cent of the business.
It is understood that the firm was keen to reward and keep its investment staff. The staff have previously shared equity in some deals completed by Ion, whose interests include travel firm Usit, Shell and Statoil in Ireland and alternative energy and outsourcing firm SWS.
Ion recently sold Ocean Media, a British firm involved in exhibitions, conferencing and magazine publishing, for £100 million, just 15 months after it bought the business for £41 million. As well as Ion, private clients of Anglo Irish Bank were among the beneficiaries of that deal.
Accounts for Ion Equity Limited show that the firm had an accumulated profit of almost €1.1 million at the end of last year, up from €402,000 a year earlier. It had almost €3.5 million in cash on its balance sheet, up from €766,000 at the end of 2005. However, the abridged accounts do not cover the full extent of Ion’s business interests.
Ion is in the running to buy Breeo, whose brands include Galtee, Dairygold and Calvita. Breeo is the consumer foods division of Reox Holdings, a Dairygold Co-op spin-off. Ion made an unsolicited approach during the summer, sparking a formal sale process.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
