Markets

Ires says issue over EGM votes resolved ahead of deadline

Glitch identified last week with votes cast via platform provider Broadridge Financial Solutions

Ires Reit, the State's largest private apartments owner, faces a crucial extraordinary general meeting on Friday as an activist investor seeks to orchestrate a boardroom coup.

Joe Brennan
Wed Feb 14 2024 - 09:17

Ires Reit shareholders affected by a glitch on a key voting platform being used ahead of a contentious extraordinary general meeting (egm) on Friday have managed to refile their votes, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

The State’s largest private residential landlord had set 11am on Wednesday as a deadline for all proxy votes to be submitted by investors seeking to cast their views on resolutions before the egm. A spokesman for Ires declined to comment on the proxy votes.

Ires, which is facing a potential boardroom coup orchestrated by activist investor Vision Capital at the egm, announced late last Friday that proxy votes cast through voting platform provider, Broadridge Financial Solutions, had been cancelled due to an error on the system. The company urged investors that had used the Broadridge system to resubmit their votes.

Up to 90 per cent of institutional investor voting traffic is likely to come through Broadridge, according to Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst John Cronin.

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Ires said in a statement on Wednesday morning that Broadridge has confirmed “that the issue has been addressed and that all voting instructions that had been submitted via the Broadridge voting instruction platform and cancelled have been resubmitted”.

The development will come as a relief to Ires, which owns 3,734 apartments and houses, and Vision Capital, ahead of the crucial egm.

Shareholders are voting on motions put forward by Toronto-based Vision Capital, which owns 5 per cent of Ires, that seek to replace five directors, including chairman Declan Moylan and chief executive Margaret Sweeney, with candidates it is putting forward. The Canadian group is also looking for approval to proceed with a strategic review process that would result in a sale or break-up of the company within two years.

Vision Capital has secured the backing of Ires’s founder, Canadian property group Capreit, which owns 18.5 per cent of the company.

Ires’s board committed in early January to carrying out a strategic review of its own, following the publication of the company’s annual results later this month. This would look at “full range of strategic options” to maximise value for shareholders, including consolidation, mergers, a review of the company as a listed Reit, the sale of the company or disposal of its assets.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times

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