Paddy Power chairman Mr Stewart Kenny yesterday handed shares worth more than €3 million to a charitable trust.
Mr Kenny, the driving force behind Ireland's largest bookmakers, transferred 620,000 shares in the company to the trust which will distribute the money to a number of charities. The shares represent a quarter of Mr Kenny's holding in the company and, at yesterday's price, are worth €3,255,000.
Mr Kenny was reluctant to comment on the gesture last night. "It's not something I want to go into too much," he said. "I feel charity is not the same when you shout about it from the rooftops."
Mr Kenny said the trust would distribute the money to a number of charities. While not revealing the identity of those charities likely to benefit from his donation, he said they were not linked to those areas in which the company operated, such as racing.
The gift represents more than 1.3 per cent of Paddy Power, the group which has grown in four years to become the largest bookmaker in the State, with a market share in excess of 30 per cent.
The growth of Paddy Power has seen Mr Kenny and other executives make handsome profits from their stakes in the company over the past four years.
At the time it was floated on the Dublin and London exchanges in December 2000, Mr Kenny, along with other directors, sold 20 per cent of his 10 per cent shareholding for €2.3 million.
He sold a further 614,000 shares for €2.2 million in August 2001, at the end of the lock-in period. Last March, just after he stepped aside from the position of chief executive, Mr Kenny sold one million shares as part of a major placing by the group, securing €4.55 million.
Mr Kenny was one of the founders of Paddy Power, which was formed when he merged his firm of Kenny O'Reilly with two other bookmakers, P. Corcoran and part of Richard Power, in 1988. At that time, it had an 8 per cent share of the market.
With the flamboyant Mr Kenny at the helm displaying a sure touch for PR, the company quickly grew to become market leader in both bookmaking and telephone betting and was one of the first to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the Internet for betting online.
The company now operates 127 shops in the Republic and two in the UK. On Tuesday, it reported record profits for the first six months of the year, marking a dramatic recovery after a relatively poor 2001.
Paddy Power was the last company to float successfully on the Irish market.
Shares in the company have more than doubled from the €2.40 at which they joined the market, hitting a high of €6 earlier this year.
