Malin settles legal action over founder share claims

Life sciences company Malin Corporation has settled a legal action with founder shareholders, who were seeking to convert their shares into direct stock.

The group of founders, which included former Elan chief executive Kelly Martin, solicitor John Given, Elan’s one-time general counsel, and Séan Murphy, a former executive with Abbott Laboratories, had sought to have more than 2.8 million founder shares converted into ordinary stock, saying that a conversion had been triggered by a so-called change of control event. They claimed that Malin’s recent sale of its 65 per cent stake in injectable drugs company Altan for €68 million amounted to such an event, a claim Malin had rejected.

One of the founders, Crow Rock Capital Limited, withdrew the claim against Malin in August, and surrendered its A ordinary shares to the company. In an announcement on Thursday, Malin said the remaining founders and the company had compromised the proceedings, which will be struck out with no order as to costs, and the A ordinary shares will be surrendered to the company.

Defamation proceedings issued on behalf of Mr Martin and Mr Murphy against the company, its chairman Liam Daniel — another former Elan executive under Mr Martin — and chief executive Darragh Lyons have also been discontinued.