O’Brien calls EGM to halt sale and oust director

DENIS O’BRIEN has hit back at Independent News & Media’s (INM’s) planned sale of its South African outdoor advertising subsidiary, by calling for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to block the move and make further changes to the INM board.

At the presentation of its interim financial results, last Friday, INM announced that it had reached agreement to sell its INM Outdoor subsidiary in South Africa for around €98 million to local company, Helios Investment Partners, adding that the transaction’s “Class 1” nature automatically needed 50.1% approval from shareholders at an EGM, to be held later this year.

INM chief executive Gavin O’Reilly said that the sale – a move previously opposed by Mr O’Brien, the group’s second largest shareholder behind Tony O’Reilly – was “a board decision” and the board was confident of achieving approval.