INDEPENDENT NEWS & Media (INM) has launched an attack on businessman Denis O'Brien, accusing him of trying to destabilise the company by spreading "misleading" information as he builds his stake in the firm. ARTHUR BEESLEY, Senior Business Correspondent reports
Gavin O'Reilly, son of INM chief Sir Anthony O'Reilly and second-in-command of the organisation, was unsparing in his criticism of Mr O'Brien as he accused him of engaging in a campaign of "lies and innuendo" to damage the company's reputation.
Mr O'Brien has never declared his ultimate intentions but is thought to be planning a takeover bid for the country's largest newspaper group.
He has repeatedly attacked the strategy, management and governance of the company, which owns the Irish Independent. While INM has rejected each of the criticisms, Mr O'Reilly's attack marks an escalation of the conflict and comes after Mr O'Brien increased his INM stake this week to 22.16 per cent. Sir Anthony increased his stake last night to almost 28 per cent.
"O'Brien has sat there, he's run around the place throwing hand grenades, and hid behind his PR people. And the press has been uncritical in its questioning of Mr O'Brien," Mr O'Reilly said.
"He is free to buy shares as indeed is any institution or individual. What he is not free to do is to continue to issue misleading, defamatory information."
Mr O'Reilly was speaking after the INM board notified the stock market that it now considers Mr O'Brien to be a "dissident" shareholder. INM circulated personal correspondence in 2003 between Mr O'Brien and Mr O'Reilly, in which Mr O'Brien wrote of "waiting for the appropriate time" to rectify "enormous" damage to his reputation arising from coverage in INM's newspapers.
Mr O'Reilly said it was reasonable on that basis to question whether Mr O'Brien was motivated by "legitimate news coverage" about his dealings with the Moriarty tribunal. There was no comment on that point from Mr O'Brien's spokesman. "It is a highly personal and unwarranted attack on the company's largest independent shareholder and appears to be designed to deflect attention away from the company's disappointing stock performance," said Mr O'Brien in a later statement.
"I have always been, and remain, committed to investing for long-term value for all shareholders and look forward to seeing signs of a similar approach from the board of directors of Independent News & Media."