INM appoints chief operating officer

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) has appointed Vincent Crowley to the post of group chief operating officer, with immediate effect.

Mr Crowley – who has headed up the group’s Irish operations for the past seven years – will be filling the role which has been vacant since Gavin O’Reilly took over as chief executive last May.

Mr Crowley, however, will not be rejoining the INM board, which he vacated earlier this year when it was reduced in size.

The role of head of INM Ireland will now be taken up by Joe Webb, currently managing director of Independent Newspapers (Ireland).

Meanwhile, the second of the three extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) INM is holding this month, took place yesterday, this one to vote on a Denis O’Brien resolution aimed at ceasing the board’s power to allot shares. The resolution was unanimously opposed by shareholders at the meeting.

That result was never really in doubt, following the group’s issuance of 724 million shares to lenders, earlier this week, as part of the €200m bond restructuring plan.

Indeed, the two remaining elements to that restructuring deal with the bondholders – namely the proposed rights issue aimed at clearing the remainder of the bond debt and the tentatively agreed sale of the group’s outdoor advertising business in South Africa (INM Outdoor) – will be voted upon, by shareholders, in just under two weeks’ time.

Yesterday, Glass Lewis – the international proxy advisory firm – recommended to INM shareholders to vote in line with the group’s recommendations for the remaining resolutions.

Similar firm, RiskMetrics has already made the same recommendation.