Businessman Michael O’Connor who was a key player in taking the Dublin department store Arnotts off the stock market, left an estate worth almost €9 million when he died in 2004, according to papers published by the Probate Office this week.
O’Connor served a chairman of the board of Arnotts in the early 2000s and was a key member of the team, alongside the Nesbitt family, that took Arnotts off the Irish Stock Exchange in 2003. The deal valued the retailer at some €250 million.
A plan to redevelop Arnotts and various other properties located between O’Connell Street and Liffey Street in Dublin’s north inner city, was announced in 2006. Known as the Northern Quarter, it was to be a large-scale rejuvenation project at an estimated cost of about €750 million.
However, the project caused friction among the shareholders and in May 2007, O’Connor and his family launched a €200 million bid to buy out the Nesbitts, and take full control of Arnotts.
The bid was rejected and in August that year and the Nesbitt family agreed to buy out the O’Connor stake for more than €40 million, ending the family’s 70-year involvement with the Dublin retailer.
O’Connor described the exit at the time as “cordial and friendly”.
O’Connor, who was a popular member of Milltown Golf Club, died on August 11th 2004. He left his entire estate to his wife Ann.
