It is 8,500 kms from Beijing to the tiny rural town of Killorglin near Ireland’s rugged south-western coast. But it is here that one of China’s first forays into European stockbroking is set to begin with the takeover of Goodbody.
The picturesque County Kerry town is better known for tourism than international finance but it also the home of Fexco, a fintech and payments company that acquired Goodbody, an old Dublin firm, for €24m in 2010 from the crisis-struck Allied Irish Banks after the crash.
Now Fexco and Goodbody managers and staff who own shares in the business are in line for a big payday. In July, they agreed a deal to sell Ireland’s second-largest broker for €150m to a Beijing consortium led by Zhongze, a holding group whose backers include Avic, China’s state aerospace and defence corporation.