EDDIE O’Connor should have been enjoying the sunset years of what has been a glittering business career.
is recently-sealed deal to sell a 75pc stake in his Mainstream Renewable Power business for up to €1bn to Norway’s Aker Horizons marked the pinnacle of success for the businessman.
The deal valued his stake at up to €550m and he retains a 25pc holding in the firm.
But rather than being remembered solely for his Midas touch, it seems Mr O’Connor – who turns 74 next month –might now just be remembered for being out of touch.
His resignation yesterday as chairman of Mainstream Renewable Power comes after comments he made last week at the virtual Dublin Climate Dialogues, that Africa’s energy transition was being held back by a lack of education in “tribal societies”.
Mr O’Connor made the comments while speaking on a panel about the energy transition. He was asked by the moderator if major economies would lead the investment needed in clean energy in the next five years.
In economies like Europe, the US, and China, he said there would be no problem with investment.
Mr O’Connor has apologised for the remarks, saying they were “were entirely inappropriate and insensitive. I made inaccurate and harmful generalisations about the continent of Africa that do not reflect reality, and instead serve only to perpetuate stereotypes,” he said in a statement.
Other speakers at the Dublin Climate Dialogues event included United States Secretary of State John Kerry, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Climate Minister and Green Party leader Eamonn Ryan and the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.
The event was chaired by Pat Cox, the former president of the European Parliament.
Despite resigning from his role at Mainstream, he is remaining as chairman of Supernode, the company he founded that’s planning to build a supergrid for transmitting renewable power in Europe. Aker acquired a 50pc stake in Supernode as part of the wider Mainstream transaction this year.
Supernode was a sponsor of the Dublin Climate Dialogues, as was Mainstream, the Irish Times, KPMG and UCD.
The comments by Mr O’Connor are a rare stain on what has been a career canvas that has spanned the public and private sector.
The native of Elphin in Co Roscommon made about €50m from the €1.8bn sale of Airtricity to Scottish and Southern Electricity in 2008.
It was to be just the first fortune made by Mr O’Connor, who was educated at Blackrock College in Dublin and then studied chemical engineering at UCD.
A post at the ESB eventually saw him become fuel purchasing manager, gaining a doctorate along the way.
When the CEO role at Bord na Mona became free, Mr O’Connor threw his hat in the ring. He was 40.
He resigned the role nine years later after the now disgraced and then minister for communications and energy, Michael Lowry, queried Mr O’Connor’s expenses.
Mr O’Connor claimed at the time that he’d been subjected to a concerted campaign to impugn his reputation.
In 1997, he started Airtricity with a £25,000 (€32,000) loan from Bank of Ireland to get the renewable energy firm off the ground.
Even when he made his first fortune from Airtricity, which had been backed by the Roche family’s NTR group, he quickly set about establishing Mainstream Renewable Power, ploughing about 90pc of his net worth into the venture.
He set his sights high and wide, targeting wind and solar energy projects across the globe.
His Airtricity pedigree opened funding doors, but there was still years of graft to scale Mainstream.
But his perseverance paid off, culminating in this year’s sale to Aker. The deal includes a potential €100m earnout for selling shareholders in 2023 if certain milestones are met. Aker also plans to float the Mainstream Renewables business on the stock market within three years.
Mainstream's current portfolio includes 1.4GW of power projects in operation or under construction, primarily made up of onshore wind and solar assets in Chile and South Africa. It also has an advanced pipeline of 700MW of projects that are expected to reach financial close this year, and more than 9GW of other development assets.
But what should have been the crowning achievement of decades of hard work, is for now at least, overshadowed by Mr O’Connor’s comments at last week’s event and his resignation yesterday.
For years, the entrepreneur has wanted to own a vineyard. But he lamented the high cost, pointing out that it would probably require about €100m. The Bordeaux region has been set firmly in his sights.
"I have to buy my vineyard,” he told the Sunday Independent earlier this year. “ I have promised myself that for a long time, but I never had the loot to do it. But now I have.”
He might also now have a lot more time to contemplate the changing seasons on the vines.
