Big groups’ arcane practice must cease

THE cloister-type existence of the ordinary shareholder, who has to depend on divine inspiration rather than raw data for investment insights, manifested itself again this week in the Arcon affair.

In short, big companies lack candour and tell small shareholders little or nothing. This arcane practice has to come to an end if investors are to have faith in equities in the long term.

The high priest of Irish business, Tony O’Reilly, is to divest himself of his troubling stake in Arcon International Resources plc. The sale of one of the world’s richest zinc mines at Galmoy in Co Kilkenny, comes when zinc prices are at a seven-year high and climbing.