INM report losses: - Update O'Reilly steps down (ousted)

[PaddyJoe]

It seems Rabbitte has lost the battle with Richard Bruton over media mergers:

Responsibility for overseeing media mergers is to be transferred to Mr Rabbitte’s department under the new law.

Mr Rabbitte wanted to have the sections dealing with media mergers extracted from the larger Bill and put through the Dáil and Seanad, so that new rules would become law by the summer.

“That conversation is now over,” said one Government source. There would be no separate Bill as suggested by Mr Rabbitte.

Another source said the matter had not been discussed at Cabinet.

There was no response to a request for a comment from Mr Rabbitte.

A spokesman for Mr Bruton said the Minister’s position remained as was set out in a recent reply to a parliamentary question.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...316239749.html

[Dr. FIVE]

Good man Pat. We can forget about the standard of politics coverage now

[PaddyJoe]

The ST biz section has a piece by Mark Paul that says the BAI are meeting next month to to look at DOB's radio ownership and whether there should be disinvestment following his increased stake in IN&M.

[PaddyJoe]

It looks like there's going to be a big clear out at the IN&M annual meeting today.

ndependent News & Media’s chairman, James Osborne, and other directors face the prospect of being voted off the board at its annual meeting in Dublin today.

It is understood that Dermot Desmond, who owns 6.36 per cent, has already cast his proxies against the re-election of Mr Osborne and other directors, with the possible exception of Paul Connolly and Lucy Gaffney, who represent Denis O’Brien on the board.

Mr O’Brien, who owns just under 30 per cent of INM, has yet to cast his votes but there was a growing expectation last night that he could vote against the re-election of Mr Osborne, who became chairman last October.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...reaking10.html

[PaddyJoe]

Denis O'Brien's representative has voted against the re appointment of INM chairman James Osbourne and chief financial officer Donal Buggy, according to RTE's David Murphy
https://twitter.com/#!/davidmurphyRTE

[Dr. FIVE]

After being ousted as INM chairman, James Osborne says

"this concludes the AGM of NOT-Independent News and Media"

LOL

[Dr. FIVE]

Labour's Oisin Quinn of Sipo fame is acting as SC for Karl Brophy against INM. You will remember from the advisers thread that Brophy's spouse Deirdre Grant is doing PR for uncle Ruairi.
While Ciaran O'Mara, Quinn's program manager during the rainbow coalition is working as solicitor.

[PaddyJoe]

The Broadcasting Authority wrote to Communicorp today in regard to media ownership issues.

Communicorp's holding in the Irish radio market includes the national stations Today FM and Newstalk, and the Dublin stations 98FM, Spin 1038 and Phantom.
Its founder Denis O'Brien increased his share in the Independent News and Media newspaper group to 29.9% in May.
The BAI published an updated Ownership and Control policy in April.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0723/bai...is-obrien.html

[PaddyJoe]

DOB's sidekick Leslie Buckley is to be appointed to INM board

INDEPENDENT News & Media has proposed the appointment of four new non-executive directors to the board of the company including businessman Leslie Buckley.

Mr Buckley, vice chairman at international mobile phone operator Digicel, previously served as a non-executive director at INM and as a representative of the company’s biggest shareholder Denis O’Brien.

Other proposed non-executive directors are Jerome Kennedy, Triona Mullane and Len O’Hagan.

http://www.independent.ie/business/i...m-3189371.html

[PaddyJoe]

Cantillion on the IN&M appointments:

At present the group has six directors, two of whom – Paul Connolly and Lucy Gaffney – are representatives of O’Brien. A third, Terry Buckley is very much seen as part of the O’Brien camp. The two other non-execs – Frank Murray and Allan Marshall – are harder to pigeon-hole and the chief executive Vincent Crowley has a difficult balancing act. But, on balance, you would have to say the O’Brien camp calls the shots, or at a minimum nothing happens that it does not approve.

The loyalties and otherwise of the four new non-executives are less clear-cut, with the exception of Leslie Buckley, another of O’Brien’s loyal lieutenants. Len O’Hagan has a long association with Tony O’Reilly, having worked for him at Fitzwilton and might be deemed sympathetic to the interest of the second-largest shareholder.

After 24 years at the top of corporate Ireland, Jerome Kennedy has so many connections that it’s possible to link him to both camps or none and, if anything, he might be best seen as the bank’s man.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...321437597.html

[PaddyJoe]

Interesting piece by John McManus on the case taken by Paul Connolly(one of Denis O'Brien's representatives on the board) against the settlement by the IN&M board of a lucrative exit package for Gavin O'Reilly.
It appears that Connolly opposed the O'Reilly deal on the grounds that the payoff should have been approved by shareholders at an AGM and his team argued that the Companies Act 1963 supported this position.
Of course if this principle had been firmly established in a judgement Connolly and O'Brien would have been extremely unpopular amongst thousands of Irish company directors

Ordinary shareholders remain in the dark, a condition to which they are well used. The statement issued by Independent News and Media on July 20th was ambiguous at best, stating: “It was indicated to the court that the issues had been resolved between the parties and that, in those circumstances, the proceedings could be struck out with no order.”

It did not make clear that unless something truly exceptional happened, the only way in which the issue could have been “resolved” was for Connolly to withdraw his application seeking a direction from the court that the payment to O’Reilly was illegal under company law.

Connolly, who represents controlling shareholder Denis O’Brien on the board, had ostensibly taken his action against the company, of which he was a director, on a point of principle.

It was made clear that O’Reilly was not going to have to repay the money, but Connolly wanted to establish that, under company law, the pay-off should have been approved by shareholders at an annual general meeting.

His lawyers said the court had to decide whether the Companies Act 1963 required such a “compensation” payment to be approved by the members of a company at a general meeting.

Having taken a welcome but frankly surprising stand for the rights of shareholders, Connolly really should explain to these shareholders why he walked away only hours before the judgment was to be given.

Not only might they have an interest in the very important issue that he had raised, they had also paid to find out the answer to the same question.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...321561741.html

[DCon]

It seems Rabbitte has lost the battle with Richard Bruton over media mergers:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...316239749.html

Rabbite pretending there is no foot dragging, and FG will not do everything they can to defend rich uncle Denis.

The Minister said the new rules for media mergers, which will form part of a complex Competition Bill, will be published in the autumn.

Mr Rabbitte also rejected claims that there was any foot dragging by the Government in bringing forward the legislation, which is the responsibility of Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton.

He said he had proposed speeding up the process by extracting the sections dealing with media mergers from the larger Bill, but this had not happened for administrative reasons.

“There is no conspiracy about this. It is merely the business of trying to bring complex legislation through the system in the quickest way possible,” he said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...322662337.html

[C. Flower]

Doesn't sound like much of a battle, but who's to know?

[PaddyJoe]

IN&M EGM to be held on Monday. DOB's right hand man Leslie Buckley will be back on the board.

Given their long history in business together, it is no surprise that O’Brien wants Buckley back at INM. Desmond has also previously expressed support for Buckley, who has a strong track record in business and is an experienced and skilful executive.

However, many shareholders might question, with some justification, why they should once again have to vote on Buckley’s election as a director of the company. After all, it’s only 13 months since they last cast their verdict on his membership of the board.

There is even a suggestion that Buckley might be chosen as INM’s new chairman, although accountant Jerome Kennedy is also linked with that role.

It would be some comeback.

With O’Brien having increased his INM holding to 29.9 per cent, Buckley’s re-election looks a certainty.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...322849303.html

[PaddyJoe]

As expected Leslie Buckley is back on the IN&M board. Denis now firmly in the driving seat.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0827/inm...-business.html