THE PHILIP Lynch-led Moonduster consortium has blocked a resolution at Irish Continental Group’s (ICG) annual meeting that would have allowed the ferry company to pursue a rights issue and offer share options to executives.
Moonduster, a consortium comprising Mr Lynch’s One51 investment group and the Cork-based Doyle shipping operation, holds a 24.9 per cent share in ICG and, with 75 per cent level of approval required to get the proposal across the line, it was able to scupper the motion.
Of the votes cast, 65 per cent were in favour of the motion while 35 per cent were against it.
After the meeting, ICG chief executive Eamonn Rothwell expressed his frustration at Moonduster blocking the motion.
He said this could hinder ICG’s ability to make an acquisition this year and took away a means of incentivising executives. “If the right deal came along, we might want to fund it through a rights issue,” he said. “It’s a standard set of tools that any plc has.”
Moonduster voted in favour of a similar motion at last year’s agm.
No comment was available from Moonduster yesterday.
ICG’s agm also saw a large block of institutional investors vote against the re-election of chairman John McGuckian, who has served on the company’s board since 1988.
Of the 12.2 million proxies voted, 2.8 million or 22.9 per cent were cast against Mr McGuckian’s reappointment to the board.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr McGuckian suggested that some institutions had taken the view that he should not chair ICG’s remuneration committee as well.
“One of the consultants to the investment community took the view that the chairman should not be chairman of the remuneration committee; we take the view that they should,” Mr McGuckian said.
When asked if he felt it was appropriate for him to continue to serve on the board after 22 years, Mr McGuckian said: “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.
“We are the only people in this game making money. If you want to measure who should be there, measure them by performance. There’s no other firm shipping between these islands [Ireland and Britain] which is profitable. So we must be getting enough right that we should stick together.”
On current trading, Mr McGuckian told shareholders that total passenger numbers, at 570,000, are up 11 per cent in the year to date, helped by people switching to ferry travel during the recent volcanic ash crisis. “Forward passenger bookings for Irish Ferries have been strong during recent weeks,” Mr McGuckian added.
He said ICG was hopeful of achieving “repeat business” from those who switched to ferries during the volcanic ash crisis.
The number of cars carried so far this year, however, has declined by 4 per cent to 124,800. “The lower car volumes were compensated for by higher yields,” Mr McGuckian said.
In terms of roll-on roll-off freight, Irish Ferries has handled 74,400 units, a reduction of 13 per cent on the previous year.
It said fuel costs were running 25-30 per cent ahead of last year due to the weakness of the euro against the dollar. However the strengthening of sterling against the euro was a “positive development for both inbound tourism to Ireland and also Irish exports to the UK, both of which are core business flows for ICG”.
