Former Irish rugby star Brendan Mullin has quit the Dublin-based investment advisory group Quinlan Private to set up his own firm. Mr Mu...

Former Irish rugby star Brendan Mullin has quit the Dublin-based investment advisory group Quinlan Private to set up his own firm. Mr Mullin, who featured on a British Lions tour, scored 17 tries in 55 appearances for Ireland from 1984 to 1995. He joined Quinlan in 2003 following its acquisition of Powerscourt Capital Partners, an investment firm that Mullin had set up some years earlier. As business development director for Quinlan, Mr Mullin's role was to raise equity for the group's various investments. Quinlan, which was founded by former tax inspector Derek Quinlan at the end of the 1980s, hit the headlines in 2004 with its €1.3 billion ($1.68 billion) purchase of London's Savoy Hotel Group from venture capital firm Blackstone. Less than a year later, Quinlan sold the part of the group, the Savoy hotel and the adjoining Simpsons-in-the-Strand restaurant to Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed and Bank of Scotland for £237 million. The group acts as principal and advisor to syndicate of high net worth individuals. Its current portfolio comprises of more than 100 properties with a value in excess of €5 billion. Quinlan Private said Mr Mullin is to leave the company to establish an investment fund focused on public and private equity in Ireland and the UK.