Gresham prepare for Red Sea battle

ANNUAL General Meetings in Ireland are rarely fractious affairs. Save for Eircom, and lately Smurfit, very few are dominated by serious questions from the floor and very few motions are defeated.

It must have, then, come as a shock to Gresham Hotels shareholders when three of its directors, including two executive directors were unceremoniously booted off the board at its AGM in June.

It probably came as no surprise to the Gresham management, who would have known how many proxy votes had come in. But to the hundreds of shareholders who make their way to the Gresham Hotel each year, it was their first taste of the acrimonious war of words between Gresham and its main shareholders Red Sea Hotels, an Israeli property group, that has been building for some time.