Businessman William O'Brien jnr has bought his relatives out of their family-owned plant hire business in a deal valued at €7.5 million.

Mr O'Brien is managing director of Cork-based William O'Brien Plant Hire, which was founded by his father.

Yesterday he said he had bought out the remaining family shareholders in the firm.

The statement did not reveal any figure, but the entire business is valued at €10 million.

Mr O'Brien controlled 25 per cent of the firm before doing the deal with his family.

William O'Brien Plant Hire appointed Merrion Capital to sell the business in February.

At that point, Mr O'Brien was understood to be looking at other ventures.

However, no suitable offer materialised and he decided to keep the plant hire operation with a view to developing it.

Commenting on the deal yesterday, he said he was "delighted" to be keeping it in family ownership, and said that he planned to continue investing in the business.

"The company recently purchased land in Little Island, Cork, where we aim to build a group head office and state of the art maintenance facilities for our fleet," he said.

"This follows an investment of €9 million in new equipment in the past two years with a further €7 million worth of equipment currently on order."

The company's net assets stand at between €11 and €12 million and turnover last year was €10 million. In 1996, the business had a turnover of €1 million.

The company is the leading crane hire firm in the country.