Carroll raises ICG stake

PROPERTY developer Liam Carroll has increased his stake in Irish Continental Group to 19.1%, bringing his holding into line with the management’s percentage of the company.

They are locked in a takeover battle for the ferry operator with Moonduster, led by businessman Philip Lynch, where each side has offered €22 per share to buy the car ferry operator.

Meanwhile, Mr Carroll who has not made his intentions known on ICG, has, through South Morston Investment, built up a stake of 4.51 million shares in the Dublin-based company.

Roughly 1.1 million of these are still held through contracts for difference, which allow investors to speculate on share movements by paying over just a fraction of the share price.

Up to 5pm yesterday Aella, representing the interests of the Irish Continental management team led by Eamonn Rothwell, was battling it out with Moonduster, representing One51 and Doyle Group, for control of the car ferries’ group, for which each is offering €22 a share.

Like Mr Carroll, Aella also owns 19.1% of the company against Moonduster’s 20.4%. Irish Continental gave the two bidders until 5pm yesterday to end the stalemate in the takeover contest.

Failure to come up with a resolution would result in both sides being barred from bidding again for 12 months. With the deadline passed and no move by the bidding parties to try to find a resolution, it looks as if they are both barred from bidding for ICG for another year.

In theory that paves the way for Mr Carroll to put a bid together, but that seems implausible given that Aella and Moonduster look determined to get the better of each other.

The bidding was initiated by Aella under Mr Rothwell in early March when he initially put a bid of €18.50 on the table. The intervention of One51 and Doyle Shipping has since upped the value of the group considerably.