Former Payzone chief Maloney joins Cardinal private equity executive team

WELL-KNOWN businessman Mike Maloney has joined the executive private equity team at Cardinal Capital.

He was formerly the chief executive of Payzone, which was bought by Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI), an Irish private equity fund founded by the Carlyle Group and Cardinal Capital.

That fund, which was backed in part by the State, bought Payzone in 2015 for €39m. It was then sold to AIB and First Data for €100m in April last year.

Maloney (right) and some other executives in Payzone held a minority stake at the time of the most recent sale.

Maloney, a former military officer with the Defence Forces, held senior roles with a number of multinational companies, operating in IT, telecoms and fintech, before being appointed group CEO of Payzone in 2008.

As reported in the Sunday Independent last month, Cardinal Capital has completed the first closing of its second private equity fund. The new fund, which is capped at €300m, will target four sectors — technology, food, financial services and healthcare — according to market sources.

It is already looking at potential investment opportunities.

Several founding members of firms in which CCI has previously invested have come on board as investors in Cardinal’s new fund.

Mary Ann O’Brien, Siobhan Plunkett, Chris Clinch and Sam McAuley have all invested in the new fund and will work exclusively with Cardinal. The new fund follows on from the close of Cardinal’s second mezzanine fund, which focuses on residential development funding for established developers.

Aside from Payzone, CCI had a number of successful investments, also making strong exits from chocolate company Lily O’Brien’s and security firm GSLS.