Guinness Mahon was an Irish merchant bank originally based in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

but more recently with operations in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

History

Formation

The firm was founded as a land agency in

in 1836 by barrister Robert Rundell Guinness, a great-nephew of the brewer Arthur Guinness, and John Ross Mahon, an

estate agent An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged ...

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London business

A London office opened in 1873, closed in 1916 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and then re-opened again in 1923. This became Guinness Mahon Holdings, which merged with Lewis & Peat Ltd in 1974, forming Guinness Peat. The firm decided to enter the securities market buying White & Cheesman, a stock jobber, in April 1984. The Group ran into difficulties in the late 1980sGuinness Mahon goes up for sale
21 January 1998 and demerged into three parts: the Guinness Mahon investment banking business, Fenchurch Insurance and the off-shore investment activities. The offshore investment activities in Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(then known as

Guinness Peat Group Guinness Peat Group was an investment holding company with interests in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. History The company, which had been formed as an investment offshoot of London based investment bank Guinness Mahon in the 1980s, was acqu ...

) were bought by Brierley Investments Limited (a business controlled by Sir

Ron Brierley Ronald Alfred Brierley (born 2 August 1937) is a New Zealand born investor and corporate raider, chairman and director of a number of companies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. He founded R. A. Brierley Investments Ltd (BIL; renamed ''Guo ...

) in 1990 and the Guinness Mahon investment banking business was acquired by Bank of Yokohama in 1991 and then sold on to

Investec Investec is an Anglo-South African international banking and wealth management group. It provides a range of financial products and services to a client base in Europe, Southern Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Investec is dual-listed on the London S ...

in 1998. Meanwhile, Fenchurch Insurance merged with Lowndes Lambert in 1997 to create ''Lambert Fenchurch'', then with Heath Group in 1999 to form ''Heath Lambert'' and then with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in 2011 to form ''Gallagher Heath''.

Irish business

From April 1986 to August 1994, Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) Ltd was a wholly owned subsidiary of Guinness Mahon & Co., London. The bank's Irish private banking operation was acquired by Irish Permanent on 31 August 1994, and operated from a single location. The operations acquired were scaled down in 2000. There were also companies associated with Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) Limited and Guinness, Mahon & Co., London, who placed deposits with Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) Limited. These companies were - Guinness, Mahon (Guernsey) Limited, College Trustees Limited, Guinness, Mahon Jersey Trust Limited, Overseas Nominees Limited and subsidiaries of Credit Suisse.

Operations

Its subsidiaries and offshoots included

Guinness Peat Aviation Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA) was a Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing company set up in 1975 by Aer Lingus, the Guinness Peat Group (a London-based financial services company) and Tony Ryan, then an Aer Lingus executive. History GPA was ...

and

in Australia and New Zealand and Guinness Flight Hambro, which became Investec Guinness Flight.

History

Formation

London business

Irish business

Operations

References

Further reading