Liberty Mutual eyeballing Irish company

 Liberty Mutual Insurance News

The United States isn’t the only place where business investing went sour because of the economy and poor investing choices. A successful Irish business man has lost his entire enterprise of very thriving businesses. Now U.S. insurance company Liberty-Mutual may be expanding into Ireland, to own and operate one of those businesses; Quinn-direct insurance.

Sean Quinn grew up poor on a farm in the UK (the Northern border of Ireland). However, he was an innovative young man and started his first business at age 25. From there he built business after business making each one a success. He became the main private employer in an area that had little to offer.

 He came to own businesses in Britain, Germany, France and Russia, to name a few. Now, the Anglo Irish Bank and the people and government of Ireland own those businesses. The Quinn Group was forced into bankruptcy last year and Sean Quinn lost all ownership in the companies as of last week.

Quinn owes more than 2.5 billion dollars against his optimistic investment of an Irish bank that became nationalized two years ago. One of his companies, Quinn-direct insurance, is the third largest insurer in Ireland and worldwide employs around eight thousand people.

Liberty-Mutual is the fifth largest U.S. insurer and may be stepping in to own and operate Quinn-direct insurance. Liberty-Mutual is in talks now with the Anglo Irish Bank. The bank and Liberty-Mutual will be partners, but the Anglo bank will only be involved in the capacity of “loan retrieval” for what the Quinn Group owed them.

Liberty-Mutual has not confirmed the news. However, the Anglo bank has been telling the Quinn-direct insurance employees they don’t have to worry about losing their jobs or being laid off.  Quinn-direct had three divisions providing insurance for cars and homes, pensions and life insurance, and healthcare. The business has over 1500 employees in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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