Independent News Media directors face off; Slattery turns down DAA chair; O’Leary offers calendar option; Indoor golf coming to Dundrum centre
IN&M meeting promises to be interesting affair
INDEPENDENT NEWS & Media’s annual general meeting at the Aviva Stadium today is shaping up to be very interesting.
Both Leslie Buckley and Brian Mulroney are under threat of having their re-elections as non-executive directors blocked by shareholders, following recommendations to this effect by influential corporate governance advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis.
For Buckley, a defeat would be a personal blow in what has been a hugely successful career, much of it spent as a senior associate of Denis O’Brien, INM’s biggest shareholder.
Not since Bernie Cahill at Greencore in 2001 have shareholders of an Irish plc voted down a board member at an agm.
It might lead to renewed tensions between the O’Reilly and O’Brien camps. Things are already bubbling since the three O’Brien nominees to the INM board indicated recently that they would be voting against the adoption of the financial statements.
They believe that Bengt Braun is not an independent director by virtue of his connection with Wan-Ifra, the newspaper trade body that Gavin O’Reilly currently heads.
They have chosen to vote against the directors’ report and accounts in protest but not to vote against Braun’s re-election.
Again, this is a highly unusual move by directors of an Irish plc.
It remains to be seen if Dermot Desmond, who has acquired about 2 per cent of INM’s shares of late, sends a representative from his IIU group to watch events unfold.
Desmond’s arrival on the share register has had people scratching their heads. Is it simply a value play? Or is he positioning himself strategically in the event of some corporate action in the near future, possibly by his old mucker O’Brien?
“He probably sees it as a value play,” was Gavin O’Reilly’s view when I spoke to him earlier this week, although he said there had been no communication between INM and Desmond to date.
He doesn’t believe Desmond and O’Brien are in any way concert parties for the purposes of takeover rules.
“I don’t think that’s the way Dermot works. He’s very much his own man in deciding on the merits of the company.”
Time will tell.
Slattery declines DAA chairman role
AVIATION LEASING executive Dómhnal Slattery has declined an invitation from Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar to become the new chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
The Clare man was not available for comment this week but I’m told he got a tap on the shoulder recently from Varadkar to fill a position vacated at short notice last month by former Greencore boss David Dilger.
Slattery already has a lot on his plate. He is busily seeking to establish Avolon, a Dublin-based aircraft leasing business that he launched just 12 months ago.
It is not clear why Varadkar wanted Slattery, who is 44, for the chairman’s role. Perhaps it was his experience in negotiating complex finance arrangements, which are the bread and butter of the aircraft leasing business.
The DAA has debts of close to €1 billion related to the building of new terminals in Dublin and Cork. Managing this debt at a time when traffic is declining at Dublin, Cork and Shannon will require skill and experience.
Or perhaps it was for his experience in negotiating with airlines, a staple in the diet of an aviation leasing executive.
Slattery and Michael O’Leary both worked for GPA but that would have cut little ice with the Ryanair boss, who has stepped up his campaign to have the DAA broken up.
Last week, in an interview with this newspaper, Varadkar said a current board member had turned down a request to take the role on an interim basis due to their own business commitments. But I understand that other candidates are under consideration.
The DAA is due to publish its annual results towards the end of this month. Ideally, it would be helpful to have a new chairman in place by then.
O'Leary set for take-off of another kind?
RYANAIR BOSS Michael O'Leary was interviewed in Britain's Daily Telegraphon Monday.
It was one of a series of interviews the chief executive did across the Irish Sea in the wake of Ryanair’s sterling full-year results.
O’Leary was asked when he might exit the Ryanair cockpit.
Guess what his answer was?
“In the next two to three years, I’ll be gone,” he said.
Now where have we heard that before?
“Eventually I’ll be right – it’s only a question of time,” O’Leary added.
The Telegraph(wisely) advised its readers not to bet on O'Leary leaving any time soon. It surmised that he's enjoying himself too much.
“It’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on. And I’m getting too old to have fun with my clothes off,” O’Leary told the paper.
He’s probably right on that point but it might be an interesting idea for Ryanair’s next charity calendar. Ryanair management team getting their kit off. Whatever would Rosanna Davison say about that?
Dundrum 'rainforest' setting for Christmas mini-golf idea
BUSINESSMAN ROSS Ivers is hoping to bring a new leisure concept to Dublin in time for Christmas. It has yet to be christened but the venture will involve two 18-hole mini-golf courses laid out in a rainforest setting as part of an adventure centre.
There would also be a cafe and associated merchandising.
I’m told that Ivers, a former Paddy Power director and ex-chief of listed property management group Veris, is teeing up vacant space in the Dundrum Town Centre of almost 20,000sq ft. It is beside the Hughes & Hughes bookstore that overlooks the Tesco car park.
Marks & Spencer previously looked at locating there but pulled back when the recession hit.
Similar leisure concepts are already in full swing in America, notably Florida, and parts of England.
I understand that Ivers has partnered an American company to bring the format to Ireland and sources tell me it will involve a “significant” investment on behalf of its backers.
Dundrum should be a good location for the launch of this mini-golf concept.
It has a big footfall and is in an affluent area.
It would certainly add to Dundrum’s leisure activities, which comprise a cinema multiplex, a theatre and ice skating at Christmas.
Ivers will primarily be targeting families and children but this might also appeal to the corporate market and retired people.
It’s an ambitious punt for the former bookie but, with a fair wind at his back, he could be on to a winner.
Little things
SLIGO-BASED Shafin Developments, of which the Westlife’s Shane Filan is a director and joint owner, has had the threat of strike-off lifted by the Companies Registration Office after recently filing accounts for the past two years.
Music to Filan’s ears no doubt. The bum note is that Shafin had accumulated losses of just over €3 million at the end of 2010 and the property crash won’t make it easy to shift its remaining houses. Maybe he could write a song about it.
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Balderton Capital, of which Irishman Barry Maloney is a senior partner, must be chuffed with its recent investment in online fashion retailer My-wardrobe.com.
The company this week reported like- for-like sales growth of 96 per cent for the past 12 months. This followed a change in strategy that saw chief executive Sarah Curran move the internet fashion retailer upmarket and expand its focus in Europe.
Balderton led a $9 million investment round in My-wardrobe in July of last year.
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Liberty Mutual’s Armagh-born chairman and chief executive Ted Kelly must have been an interested spectator in the internal row at Fifa this week over allegations of corruption within the football body.
Its Brazilian subsidiary LibertySeguros recently signed a sponsorship deal with Fifa to become a “national supporter” for the 2014 World Cup in the country and the FIFA Confederation Cup in 2013. This was hardly a good way to kick off the partnership.
With Liberty set to take over Cavan- based Quinn Insurance later this year, Kelly must be hoping that that at least one of the Irelands can qualify for the Brazil tournament to maximise the promotional leverage here.
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Edward Flahavan and Sons Ltd, famous for its porridge and oats, raised its profits last year by 22 per cent to €1.3 million, according to its latest accounts. This boosted shareholders’ funds to €9.5 million at the company, which also has an investment in Waterford Regional Airport.
