Business Opinion: It is getting on for two months now since Red Sea Hotels folded its tent and walked away from Gresham Hotels. The deadlock ended when 28 per cent shareholder Red Sea agreed to accept a bid from Precinct, a consortium of three wealthy Irish investors.

Red Sea's decision came a few days ahead of an Irish Takeover Panel hearing into whether the Tel Aviv-based group was acting in concert with a Hong Kong based-businessman called Blaram Chainrai who had built up an 11 per cent stake through an offshore company called Whiterain Ltd.

The Discount Bank of Israel, through which Mr Chainrai bought his shares, was also called to attend along with Davy Stockbrokers and Davy Corporate Finance.

For the record it should be pointed out that Red Sea said that it decided to accept the offer after Precinct agreed to increase it from €1.30 to €1.40 per share.

"Our stance has been vindicated by the fact that after months of avoiding the issue of value, a good deal has finally been secured for all shareholders," said chief executive Amos Pickel.

If Mr Chainrai and Red Sea had been found to be acting in concert then they would have been held to be in breach of the panel rules, and also been required to make a bid for the company.

The hearing set for July 8th was postponed after Red Sea agreed to accept the Precinct offer on July 3rd. And there the matter appears to rest, with no further communication from the panel or anybody else. The director general of the panel, Michael Ryan, was not available when contacted to shed any further light on the matter.

Of course the whole issue is now a moot point. Gresham Hotels has now been delisted and the new owners, who made the initial complaints to the panel along with Gresham itself, are getting on with managing the business. One of the hotels, the Royal Marine in Dún Laoghaire, is changing hands and the group will soon not exist in its original form.

It is also the case that proceeding with the hearing could result in farce. The panel is not in a position to compel Red Sea, Mr Chanrai and the Israeli bank to attend given that they are not based in Ireland.

If they decided not to turn up, it would be a case of Hamlet without the prince. It is safe to assume that Davy would turn up and it might give Davy's rivals some pleasure to see the dominant broker get its wrist slapped - if the panel found it to be at fault in some way - but it would be a fairly hollow exercise without the main players.

But having said all that, the panel cannot afford to let the matter rest.

The whole Gresham Hotel saga raised very serious questions about the credibility and effectiveness of the panel in its role as guardian of the interest of shareholders in takeover situations. And these questions remain unanswered.

The panel may have pulled out the big guns for the first time in its history by convening a public hearing, but we are none the wiser as to whether it would have been able to get to the bottom of the matter. And equally we are in the dark as to whether the panel could have enforced whatever decision it came to.

The way the issue was resolved in the end raises further questions about how serious the panel is about enforcing its rules and holding accountable the parties involved. This in turn begs a question about the credibility of the Irish stock market in general.

The outcome of its actions in respect of Gresham Hotels may have produced what appears to be an acceptable outcome, but it smacks of being an Irish solution to an Irish problem.

The panel in effect presented the alleged concert party with a choice - it could either accept the offer from Precinct in the fairly certain knowledge that the panel investigation would melt away, or else it could refuse the Precinct offer and face a panel hearing.

Leaving aside the specifics of the Gresham case, the general message that this sends is not a very healthy one. What it suggests is that if you are of a mind to make mischief in the Irish market you might as well have a go, because if the Irish Takeover Panel decides to get involved you can quietly slip out the back door and that will be the end of it.

This is not to suggest that Red Sea was intending any mischief or that it accepted the Precinct offer for any reason other than that put forward by Mr Pickel.

It is not in the interest of any serious participant in the Dublin market, including Davy, that such a state of affairs should exist. It only serves to compound the already jaundiced view taken of the Irish market in London and elsewhere.

It may well turn out to be an empty gesture, but pursuing the Gresham Hotel concert party allegations to a conclusion would go some way to countering this.