Guinness Mahon was an Irish

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

originally based in

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

but more recently with operations in

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

History

Formation

The firm was founded as a land agency in

in 1836 by

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

Robert Rundell Guinness Robert Rundell Guinness (12 December 1789 -7 March 1857) was an Irish banker, most famous for co-founding the Guinness Mahon bank in 1836. The grandson of a Dublin goldbeater Samuel Guinness (1727-1795), he is the first of the "banking line" in ...

, a great-nephew of the brewer

Arthur Guinness Arthur Guinness ( 172523 January 1803) was an Irish brewer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The inventor of Guinness beer, he founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in 1759. Born in Celbridge, County Kildare around 1725, 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 i ...

.AIM 25 Collection
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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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 ''Guoc ...

) in 1990 and the Guinness Mahon investment banking business was acquired by

Bank of Yokohama is the largest regional bank in Japan, operating mainly in Kanagawa Prefecture and southwestern Tokyo. It currently operates 610 offices in Japan and five offices overseas (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New York and London). History The bank wa ...

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 ...

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 Permanent TSB Group Holdings plc, formerly Irish Life and Permanent plc is a provider of personal financial services in Ireland. Irish Life Assurance plc and the Irish Permanent Building Society merged to form the Irish Life and Permanent Group ...

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