BUSINESSMAN DENIS O'Brien has welcomed the arrival onto the share register at Independent News Media (INM) of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, one of his most powerful rivals in the Caribbean and central American telecoms market.
It emerged last weekend that Mr Slim, described by Forbesas the world's second-richest man with a $60 billion fortune, had bought a 1 per cent interest in INM, the company in which Mr O'Brien has a 21 per cent stake.
Mr Slim's arrival was implicitly confirmed by INM chief operating officer Gavin O'Reilly at an agm in Australia where he was appointed non-executive chairman of APN, the company's 39 per cent-owned subsidiary. "I wouldn't argue with any of the press coverage I've seen on it; put it that way," Mr O'Reilly told the Australian newspaper.
Mr Slim's company América Móvil competes in certain markets against Mr O'Brien's Digicel. While some observers say Mr Slim could use his INM shares to frustrate a takeover bid for the company from Mr O'Brien, an alternative scenario is that the stake could be used as a bargaining chip in any future transaction between América Móvil and Digicel.
Mr O'Brien said he would welcome the involvement of Mr Slim in INM for the benefit of all shareholders. "He is probably the world's foremost telecoms entrepreneur and his company adheres to the highest levels of corporate governance. I hope Carlos Slim will support the move for change at Independent News Media and an improvement in corporate governance," he said.
"Independent News Media faces increasingly difficult market conditions and it will take considerable expertise and guidance to maintain shareholder value."
INM, which has rejected each of Mr O'Brien's criticisms of its board, management, governance and strategy, noted that it declared Mr O'Brien a dissident shareholder and said it would not be commenting further.
Gavin O'Reilly, a son of chief executive Sir Anthony O'Reilly, was elected chairman of APN in succession to former INM finance director James Parkinson, who has retired from its board. He said INM was "most assuredly" a long-term holder of its stake in APN, a firm that INM unsuccessfully tried to take private last year.
Sir Anthony bought 500,000 INM shares yesterday, taking his interest to 27.88 per cent and the combined interest of its directors to 29.36 per cent. The stock closed up 2.1 per cent in Dublin at €1.99.
