Ian Guider: Will Niel do it his way on plan for Eir?

Investors may well be attracted to buying a stake in the telco’s fibre network if it can reach its potential over the next few years

Eir is now in rude health. It’s come through the pandemic in good shape, and its most recent quarterly results show a 13 per cent increase in earnings from a year ago, as well as a 10 per cent jump in revenues

Eir’s dizzying two decades of ownership reshuffles was meant to have come to an end in 2017 when Iliad, the French telecoms company, and Xavier Niel, its billionaire owner, came calling with a €3.5 billion takeover offer.

NJJ, Niel’s private investment vehicle, and Iliad are the eighth owners of Eir since it was privatised in 1999. It’s hard to think of a company that has been flipped so many times in such a short period, ...