Kingspan boss Murtagh takes a stake in Dundalk company Climote

Derek Roddy founder and CEO of Climote

Kingspan boss Gene Murtagh has taken a stake in Dundalk-based smarthome heating firm Climote, according to a report in today’s Irish Independent.

According to the paper it is understood that the valuation placed on Climote has doubled in the past two years.

Mr Murtagh is the latest heavy-hitter from the energy sector to invest in the business, which is based in Finnabair Industrial Park.

Last year, former Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins took a stake in Climote, as did former Airtricity boss Ian Marchant. Mr Marchant invested around €100,000 and it’s believed that Mr Mullins invested about €300,000. Both are now advisers to Climote.

Mr Murtagh has stumped up €400,000 for his personal holding in Climote. Cavan-based Kingspan, a global insulation provider with revenue of €1.8bn last year, has already partnered with Climote in promoting smart energy solutions.

They recently worked together with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and Electric Ireland to equip 2,100 Co Louth social housing homes with Climote system.

Irishman Ross Finegan, a co-founder of London-based Lonsdale Capital Partners, has also just taken a stake in Climote. Lonsdale acquired Irish publisher CJ Fallon in 2013 and sold it earlier this year to US private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.

Filings for Climote show that both Mr Murtagh and Mr Finegan each paid just over €1,000 per ordinary share in Climote.

That compares to the €533 per share that was paid by investors who used a British Virgin Islands vehicle in 2013 to acquire a stake in the business.

Climote is a spin-off from a company called Smarthomes. Smarthomes was co-founded by businessman and former presidential candidate Sean Gallagher, and Derek Roddy.

Climote has won awards for its remote home heating control system. Householders have an electronic control panel fitted in their homes to replace existing thermostat. Users can then control their home heating from anywhere in the world, over a smartphone app, by SMS, or via a tablet or laptop for instance.

The premise is that householders can save money by more precisely controlling when their home heating and water heaters go on and off.

Gallagher launches new real estate group

Sean Gallagher

Sean Gallagher, the high-profile former presidential candidate and Dragon’s Den star, has raised over €25m to buy commercial property with the launch of his new Clyde Real Estate group.

Gallagher and his backers are seeking to tap into the huge demand for quality offices in Dublin and other parts of the country. The firm has just bought the Alcatel-Lucent complex in Blanchardstown, in the largest commercial property transaction in Ireland in the first quarter of 2015.

Clyde Real Estate has raised €25m from an unnamed US private equity player, as well as bank debt and founder equity to fund the purchase of properties.

Gallagher, who lived for a number of years in Blackrock, has teamed up with telecoms magnate Colm Piercy, who runs European communications group Viatel, to buy office and commercial properties in Dublin, Carlow and Louth over the last year.

Piercy is one of the most successful telecoms entrepreneurs in the country. He merged his Dundalk-based Digiweb business into Viatel in a €120m merger in 2013 and the expanded firm has become increasingly valuable. He is also an investor in the data centre sector.

“Clyde Real Estate is a business-led property venture that has been founded by experienced business builders,” said Gallagher. “Each of us has grown our own technology companies and we feel uniquely placed to understand the flexible and high specification accommodation needs of modern business,” he added.

“We are focused on acquiring substantial office and commercial properties which will be made available to meet the growing needs of indigenous Irish companies, corporates and multinational firms seeking to establish or expand their operations here,” explained Gallagher.

As well as buying the 300,000 sq ft Alcatel-Lucent building, Clyde Real Estate has also done a deal to acquire the landmark Braun facility in Carlow from multinational Procter & Gamble.

Gallagher says the company will develop this 30-acre site into a dedicated corporate and technology park for the South East. Clyde Real Estate is working on closing a number of other deals which will give it a portfolio of office and commercial space encompassing around 1 million square feet.

The company’s existing clients include well-known names such Citibank, Alcatel-Lucent, Viatel, Ask.com and Paragon Global Resources.

Clyde is in talks with a number of other private equity and institutional funders on financing further acquisitions after it beds down its first round of commercial property deals. It is likely to seek to raise a larger sum from backers for property buyouts in Ireland and overseas markets.

Local firm beats Google to €10m contract

The Climote hub

Local start-up Climote have beaten Google in a David and Goliath-style battle for a coveted €10m contract, according to a report in today’s Irish Independent.

The Dundalk smart metering company was chosen over Nest, the business bought by Google for $3.2bn (€2.4bn) earlier this year, and 25 other companies for a lucrative contract with energy company Scottish Power.

Industry giants Siemens and Honeywell Global also competed.

The deal will see Climote supply its technology to Scottish Power’s 5.6 million UK customers.

This will allow the customers to control their heating remotely from anywhere in the world.

Once Scottish Power has installed Climote’s device, customers can control their heating via an app for iPhone or Android. For those with older phones, it can be controlled using text messages or a web page.

The deal is valued at a minimum of €10m in the medium term though this will depend on how quickly Scottish Power rolls out the technology.

Climote has already teamed up with Electric Ireland in the Republic and Power NI in the North to roll out its technology on the island of Ireland.

Climote is the brainchild of ex-Honeywell Ireland boss Eamon Conway and connected homes innovator Derek Roddy.

It was created as a spin-off of home technology company Smarthomes, which counted former presidential candidate Sean Gallagher as a director.

RTÉ must present requested documents to Sean Gallagher

Sean Gallagher (right) on the Frontline presidential debate alongside Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness

The High Court has ruled that RTÉ must provide Sean Gallagher with certain documents sought by him for his action against the broadcaster arising from the “Tweetgate” incident during the 2011 Presidential Election campaign.

Mr Gallagher sought several documents, including one created between the broadcast of the Frontline debate on 24 October 2011 and 18 November 2012, when a report of an internal RTÉ review of the broadcast was published.

RTÉ opposed the action. It claimed the request was too broad and amounted to a “trawl” of documentation that would put the station to extra cost.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said that Mr Gallagher is entitled to be provided with the documents he is seeking from RTÉ as part of his case.

Mr Gallagher’s lawyers had asked the court for orders compelling RTÉ to discover certain categories of documents because they were unhappy with the scope of documents that RTÉ was prepared to make available to them.

They sought documents created between the broadcast on 24 October 2011 and 18 November 2012, when a report of an internal RTÉ review of the broadcast, conducted by Rob Morrison, was published.

They also wanted material received by RTÉ via the “McGuinness4president” Twitter account, which was subsequently put to Mr Gallagher; documents recording RTÉ’s protocols and guidelines for the verification of information used during broadcast; all documents relating to Mr Morrison’s review and an unredacted copy of that review.

Mr Gallagher also wanted all documents created prior to November 2012 relating to identification and selection of audience members and to questions to be asked by those.

RTÉ, who opposed the motion, was only prepared to discover materials generated either on the date of the debate or in the week afterwards.

RTÉ’s lawyers said the broadcaster was happy to provide Mr Gallagher with all materials relevant to the claim.

Mr Justice Gilligan in his judgment said that limiting discovery to documents created on the date of or within the subsequent week of the broadcast would be “too restrictive” and would “run the risk of doing an injustice” to Mr Gallagher.

The judge said he was also satisfied Mr Gallagher was “not seeking to engage in a fishing expedition or general trawl of RTÉ’s documentation”.

He did not accept compliance with orders for discovery would prove to be “unnecessarily costly” for RTÉ or lengthen the litigation.

Documentation generated in the time frame sought by Mr Gallagher’s lawyers was appropriate for the fair disposal of the proceedings, the judge added.

Mr Justice Gilligan adjourned the matter for a week to allow both sides consider his judgment.

Source: RTÉ

Gallagher taking High Court action against RTÉ over controversial Frontline programme

Sean Gallagher with his wife Trish

RTE “deliberately” tried to “alter the course” of the presidential election in favour of Michael D Higgins, his defeated rival Sean Gallagher has claimed in explosive High Court documents.

Mr Gallagher, runner-up in the election to Mr Higgins, has significantly upped the stakes in his battle with RTE arising out of a hugely controversial Frontline debate programme.

The former Dragons’ Den star has made a series of dramatic claims which RTE sources are adamant will be vigorously contested.

Mr Gallagher has accused RTE of “constituted targeted malice” that effectively took him out of the 2011 presidential race. He claims RTE “deliberately” sought to “promote the electoral chances of Michael D Higgins” and to damage his own electoral chances.

And he accuses RTE of “improper or ulterior motive” to “alter the course” of the election in favour of the President.

Mr Gallagher claims the controversial Frontline programme set out to “damage” his electoral chances, was “grossly unfair” to him and “lacked any objective standards of editorial fairness”.

This time last year Mr Gallagher – who was residing in Blackrock at the time – announced his intention to seek a High Court declaration that the programme, aired on October 24, 2011, was neither objective nor impartial nor fair to his interests.

He also said he was seeking damages for alleged breach of statutory duty and negligence and exemplary damages arising out of subsequent comments by Frontline host Pat Kenny.

At the time RTE confirmed that a plenary summons had been received and said there would be “no further comment”.

However, in correspondence with Mr Gallagher over a year ago, RTE rejected the substance of his claims and confirmed its intention to contest the proceedings.

Yesterday sources at the national broadcaster stressed that RTE remained steadfast in its intention to contest the proceedings.

Last week the High Court was told that Mr Gallagher was seeking all documents relating to the programme. The discovery application will be heard in full on February 11 next.

A High Court hearing on Mr Gallagher’s claims is scheduled to be heard later this year.

In March 2012, the Broadcasting Compliance Committee deemed the RTE broadcast of a “fake” tweet to be unfair to Mr Gallagher. In November that year, RTE published an internal review of the Frontline debate that identified serious editorial failings.

The Sunday Independent now understands Mr Gallagher claims a series of alleged failures against RTE in relation to the broadcast of the fake tweet.

On broader issues surrounding the programme, he claims that RTE interfered with and redrafted questions asked of candidates and allowed the questions to be asked in an unfair and unequal manner.

He claims RTE “organised” the debate so that he was the only candidate to be asked three challenging audience questions, whereas other candidates, such as Michael D Higgins, were asked none.

The debate was organised, he claims, to change the course of the election.

He also accuses RTE of failing to ensure audience members were objectively selected and claims that the method of audience selection was not transparent, systematic and clearly recorded.

He also claims RTE failed to have a senior editorial figure in charge of the debate to ensure editorial and compliance issues during the course of the debate and failed to implement and uphold proper journalistic standards as a national public service broadcaster.

Source: Sunday Independent

Gallagher firm records loss

Sean Gallagher

A consultancy firm associated with former presidential candidate Seán Gallagher had accumulated losses of €58,370 at the end of 2012, according to abridged accounts just filed.

Beach House Training and Consulting Ltd, with an address at Fota Island, Cork, had accumulated profits of €50,720 at the end of 2011. The accounts show that amounts due to creditors after more than one year jumped to €87,521, from zero at the end of the previous year. Shareholders’ funds at year’s end were a deficit of €58,270.

The directors are Mr Gallagher and his wife, Trish O’Connor. He transferred the shares in the firm to his wife and resigned as a director in 2011, the year he ran for the presidency. He was reappointed a director in June 2012.

Mr Gallagher used to reside in Blackrock but has since relocated to Cork.