The Irish Times

Nobody knows what Liam Carroll is going to do next - apart from himself and those in his tight circle. Certainly, it would have been impossible to imagine that the man behind Zoe Developments and all the shoebox apartments it built in the early 1990s would go on to become one of Ireland's leading corporate raiders. His latest target is Irish Continental Group (ICG), which owns Irish Ferries. In the midst of a takeover battle between two consortiums for control of the company, Carroll built up a stake of 26.25 per cent - possibly to become kingmaker (a role he also sought to play in Jurys Doyle and Greencore), or with his sharp eye on the 33 acres in Dublin Port on which ICG owns the lease. The reclusive, cash-rich developer first entered the Greencore lists in summer 2006, when he paid €170 million for the 22.2 per cent stake held for years by billionaire financier Dermot Desmond. He has since bought more shares to bring his stake to 29.5 per cent - just below the level at which he would have to make a formal bid for the company. Carroll's personal stake in Greencore is currently valued at more than €262 million, but he's not in the game to make sandwiches. Although he has never said so, what appears to interest him is Greencore's landbank of 900 acres, mainly in Carlow and in Mallow, Co Cork, where sites occupied by sugar factories once owned by the State are likely to be redeveloped.