DENIS O’BRIEN has taken his holding in Independent News & Media (IN&M) to just above 20 per cent, cementing his position as the company’s largest single shareholder and heightening speculation about his long-term intentions for the business.
A filing released to the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday indicates that Mr O’Brien has increased his holding to 20.23 per cent. He is believed to have bought about eight million shares recently, including six million shares on Monday. These were bought at about 88 cents each, costing Mr O’Brien just more than €7 million.
Mr O’Brien is believed to have mopped up stock being offloaded by bondholders who were involved in a major debt-for-equity swap last year as part of a large financial restructuring by IN&M, aimed at reducing its debts.
Many of the bondholders have sold their shares in INM since the restructuring was completed.
In April, Mr O’Brien spent €19.4 million to increase his shareholding in the media group to 18.7 per cent. Mr O’Brien acquired the shares at 11.5 cent each. This was before a seven-for-one share restructuring exercise aimed at reducing the number of IN&M shares in issue and improving the stock’s liquidity.
The stock was bought from Bank of Ireland, which up to that point held a 4.7 per cent stake in the business. This took Mr O’Brien’s stake ahead of the holding of Sir Anthony O’Reilly and his family, who own 14.65 per cent.
A spokesman for Mr O’Brien declined to comment yesterday on his latest purchase of shares.
Mr O’Brien is expected to add to his holding over time but it is not clear if he will seek to increase his influence at IN&M or launch an outright bid for the company.
Mr O’Brien currently has three representatives on the IN&M board – Leslie Buckley, Lucy Gaffney and Paul Connolly.
The telecoms entrepreneur held 26 per cent of IN&M before a financial restructuring last year, which diluted the positions of existing shareholders. Mr O’Brien opposed the restructuring, which also involved the sale of certain assets. These included IN&M Outdoor in South Africa, which was sold for a net €95 million to Helios Investment Partners.
Mr O’Brien has had an on-off battle with the O’Reilly family and the board of IN&M over the past couple of years about the way the company has been run. At its recent annual meeting, however, IN&M chief executive Gavin O’Reilly said Mr O’Brien was a “significant shareholder and certainly not a dissident shareholder at all”.
