IWP chief defends decisions at AGM
“I accept that, with hindsight, the board could have done different things and the actions that were taken were, in our considered opinion, the best available to us at the time,” he said.
“I think it’s like any situation in life - with hindsight we would do differently.
“We’d sell the properties, we’d do different things. Unfortunately we had to make the decisions at the time. We took those in all good faith. We are all on the same side in this. We’re all shareholders, we have suffered, you have suffered.”
“I regret that and I regret it sincerely,” he said.
In a few months’ time the group will hold an EGM requesting that shareholders vote to grant control of the group to its bankers.
For that they will get 10% of the equity or 3.5cents per share, or as one shareholder pointed out a “90% dilution of their interests.”
It will also cut the company’s debt from €121 million to €65m.
Mr Moran said voting yes to the deal made sense in the circumstances.
The chairman also faced several other questions.
The question on many shareholders’ lips was why did he reject the 44c per share MBO offer a few years ago?
At the time Mr Moran said the board believed the group could get back to the profit levels of €20m a year it was earning back in 2000 and 2001.
He said unfortunately Europe turned down and consolidation in the sectors in which the group was active was stepped up, putting margins under pressure.
Mr Moran also told shareholders that chief executive Jim Murphy, who left the company in the past week, will be replaced in January.
In reply to another question Mr Moran said the group considered selling off assets but that would still leave a deficit of about €40m to €50m debt outstanding, which was totally inadequate as far as the banks were concerned.
The accounts for this year also showed legal costs of €4.5m, the amount involved in securing the refinancing package with the banks.
IWP had to carry the full cost, Mr Moran said.
