Derek Quinlan

Early life and career

Quinlan was born in Dublin in 1947, the son of an Army Officer. He attended Blackrock College and University College, Dublin. He began his career as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand before joining the Irish Revenue Commissioners as a tax inspector. In 1989 he went into private practice, founding Quinlan Private as an asset management firm for high-net-worth individuals. He specialised in investing in tax designated areas in the 1990s in Ireland supporting Irish government policy in relation to property renewal, regeneration and job creation.

Notable transactions

In 2003, Quinlan’s car parking company Park Rite saw a turnover increase of 60% from €876,995 to €1.4m. Founded in 1975, Park Rite managed approximately 25,000 spaces in Dublin, Wicklow and Galway. It operated many of Dublin’s biggest city centre car parks, including Arnotts, Irish Life and Drury Street.

In 2004, Quinlan gained 1% ownership of Wentworth, one of the most exclusive gold courses in Britain, through the Savoy deal. Also in 2004, Quinlan headed an investment syndicate that bought The Savoy Group for £750 million, giving it control of landmark London hotels including Claridges, The Connaught Hotel and The Savoy Hotel. Quinlan outbid competing buyers, including Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Some months later, Quinlan sold The Savoy Hotel to the Saudi prince for £250 million, while retaining the other hotels in the group, subsequently renamed The Maybourne Hotel Group.

In 2005, Quinlan Private won the financier the deal of the year award at the Variety Club property awards for the Knightsbridge Estate acquisition. The same year, a group of investors led by Quinlan outbid the Abu Dhabi royal family to acquire a £530 million Knightsbridge estate, including retail, hotels, offices and residential properties.

In 2006, it was reported that Quinlan had more than €5 billion worth of assets under management. Quinlan Private joined up with Chicago property company Golub to set up Quinlan Private Golub, an investment fund targeting eastern Europe. He acquired the Chelsea Harbour Hilton, a landmark hotel frequented by English Premiership football clubs for £53.5m. Quinlan Private purchased the €300m Diagonal Mar shopping centre in Barcelona in 2006, representing Spain’s largest yet single property transaction. That year, Quinlan was investor in another syndicate that bought the Irish Glass Bottle development site in Dublin's Ringsend for €413 million. Anglo-Irish Bank was the principal lender. As of 2009, the site remained undeveloped and the value was written down to €60 million. In 2010, Anglo-Irish Bank's loan on the site was transferred to Ireland's National Asset Management Agency.

In 2007, Quinlan Private acquired Irish hotel chain Jurys Inns for €1.165 billion. Some months later, Quinlan obtained a €200 million investment in Jurys from the sovereign wealth fund of Oman, as part of a plan for further international expansion of the chain. The same year the firm acquired the Citigroup headquarters at 25 Canada Square for £1 billion, in a joint venture with PropInvest. In April 2007, Quinlan’s investment firm acquired a portfolio of 47 Marriott hotels in the UK for £1.1bn. Also in 2007, Quinlan was a co-investor in the acquisition of the Madrid headquarters building of Banco Santander for €1.9 billion.

In 2008, Quinlan led a consortium that acquired the Bank of Ireland Headquarters in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, for 180 million euros.

In June 2017, it was reported that Quinlan was advising a consortium of European investors on an estimated €1.3 billion bid to buy the Brussels building that houses the Belgian finance ministry. His firm Quinlan Real Estate is leading the bid, which involves one of the largest property transactions in Europe in recent years. The deal will be the largest in Belgian history and the second largest single-property sale in Europe in recent times after the sale of Coeur Défense in Paris. The Finance Tower includes a 10-storey block that was built adjacent to the original 31-storey building and it houses more than 4,500 office workers in more than 2.4 million sq ft of floorspace.

In 2017, Quinlan also acted as an advisor for an €8m deal for the acquisition of the former motor tax office in Dublin. Office agents expect the new block to be of particular interest to UK legal firms planning to relocate to Dublin as a result of Brexit.

Business difficulties

The financial crisis of 2007-2010 severely impacted Quinlan's liquidity. He has since reduced his debts by €3 billion. In 2009 Quinlan resigned from Quinlan Private and moved to Switzerland on the advice of KPMG. In April 2011 a receiver was appointed on behalf of the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) to take charge of a number of properties owned by Quinlan, after he had failed to repay loans to the agency totalling hundreds of millions of Euros. In September, 2014, the Sunday Independent reported that he had reduced his debts by more than €3bn, the biggest single repayment of debt by a single borrower owed to the National Asset Management Agency and other banks.

Personal life

Quinlan has lived in Dublin, London, Switzerland and Abu Dhabi. As of 2016, he resides in Monaco.