Animated attack on ‘dissident shareholder’ as chief says company reputation damaged
Gavin O’Reilly, chief operations officer of IN&M, the son of another Irish billionaire, business chief Tony O’Reilly, was the one who launched the group’s unprecedented attack.
Mr O’Brien has been steadily undermining the grip of the O’Reilly family on Independent News & Media though his building of a considerable stake in the multimedia group, currently standing at under 22%, just behind O’Reilly’s father Tony O’Reilly, who is executive chairman of Independent News & Media and raised his stake in the company by 1.3% to 27.9%, yesterday.
Gavin O’Reilly yesterday branded Mr O’Brien a dissident shareholder, saying his comments and actions have undermined the group.
“We are not for appeasement. Mr O’Brien has fired the first shots here, but we have not heard from Mr O’Brien,” he said.
However, IN&M has not asked the Financial Regulator to investigate Mr O’Brien’s share dealings in the group.
It was a matter for the regulator to decide what action to take in relation to that matter, he said.
Was he not blaming Mr O’Brien for the decline in the share price?
“Absolutely not, but the comments he has made hasn’t helped the sentiment behind our stock,” said Mr O’Reilly.
Despite everything, IN&M has performed better than all the other media stocks, he said.
Explaining yesterday’s actions, Mr O’Reilly said: “I think it is reasonable our shareholders understand the position. The drip-feeding of mistruths and misleading information has no substance.
“So I think we need to answer that on behalf of our shareholders,” said Mr O’Reilly.
“We think it is rather curious to say the least that he has been advancing what is a very, very offensive PR campaign.”
Those actions have led to calls from British journalists asking “who is this guy Denis O’Brien? Why is he calling me up out of the blue to talk about IN&M”.
“This guy is out there spinning and he is causing damage to this company’s reputation and to shareholders,” said Mr O’Reilly.
He flatly rejected suggestions that the feud between his father and Mr O’Brien goes back to the second mobile phone licence won by Mr O’Brien from under the noses of other bidders, including the consortium in which Tony O’Reilly was involved.
“I’m sorry that people want to believe that this all started because either the O’Reilly family or IN&M was somehow interested in mobile telecommunications and that we didn’t get it and he got the licence that somehow there is some issue,” he said.
“That is categorically not the case. And I would direct all of you to the evidence in the Moriarty Tribunal and a letter written by my father to Denis O’Brien congratulating him in the most glowing and generous terms possible on his award of the licence,” he said.
“This is a myth that has been allowed to perpetrate in Ireland and I am glad to set the record straight on this.” He added: “I have nothing to back down from. This company has nothing to back down from. We’ve just delivered record results. We’ve a very, very clear vision for the future. We have supportive shareholders.”
“This is a battle — this is a war of Mr O’Brien’s choosing not ours,” said Mr O’Reilly.
