A WIND farm founded by Sean Quinn in Fermanagh has been put on the market just as the former tycoon is trying to get it back.
The Slieve Rushen Wind Farm in Gortmullan, Derrylin, was reportedly put up for sale in recent weeks by its UK owners, with a sale likely by Christmas.
In September, Mr Quinn approached the local landowners, who lease their land for the wind farm to UK-owned company Gravis, to join him in a cooperative project to “hold on to something in the area”.
“It’s a wind farm that I built in 2008. The current lease expires in 2033. The local farmers are signing up to put a management team in place along with myself and my family,” Mr Quinn previously told the Herald.
“Rather than leasing it again, they have formed a co-op. There are more farmers involved now than 16 years ago when I built it.
“I may not still be around when it all comes about, but some of us will be. The way people are looking at it is that there’s not much point in foreigners owning businesses all around the local area.
“The farmers and myself feel that it’s better to hold on to something around here rather than giving it away to foreign companies. Everything else seems to be given to owners outside of the country.
“We all felt the wind farm should be retained by the local community. There’s very few who would argue with that.”
Future development plans for the site are for it to produce solar as well as wind energy, but it will continue to provide green energy.
The wind farm is the latest former Quinn asset to come on the market.
The Slieve Russell golf resort in Cavan, at one time one of the jewels in Mr Quinn’s property empire, has just been bought by Australian-based Brady Property Group for a sum believed to be in the region of €30 million.
In August, Turkish firm Cimsa bought a 94.7 per cent stake in Mannok, the company once owned by Mr Quinn.
They acquired the company for an overall enterprise value of €330 million. Local management will still lead Mannok, and retain a 5.3 per cent interest in the business.
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