O'Brien increases his IN&M stake to exceed 22%

BUSINESSMAN DENIS O'Brien is said to have continued stake-building in Independent News & Media (IN&M) yesterday after declaring in mid-morning that he had bought another 1 per cent of the company, bringing his total stake to 22.15 per cent, writes Arthur Beesley, Senior Business Correspondent.

High-level market sources believe Mr O'Brien has intensified his buying activity in the run-up to the publication of IN&M's annual results tomorrow because the company itself and its directors are precluded in the current close period from buying the stock.

Mr O'Brien is also taking advantage of IN&M's weak share price, which continues to trade at less than half the €3.80 level around which he bought shares last year.

IN&M shares closed 9.5 per cent stronger at €1.752 last night after closing at €1.60 on Thursday, a day on which it traded at one point at €1.56.

Such price levels suggest the market believes that Mr O'Brien does not plan an immediate bid for IN&M.

Bloomberg data suggests almost 35 million shares changed hands yesterday.

However, senior market sources attributed most of that to a further rejigging of institutional share portfolios in light of IN&M's departure on Thursday from the closely-watched Dow Jones STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index.

While the same data suggested as many as 60 million shares changed hands on Thursday, the fact that Mr O'Brien declared only the purchase of 7.77 million shares yesterday was taken by some senior sources as confirmation that there was a large amount of index-related double-counting of transactions on Thursday.

Well-placed market observers said the intensification of Mr O'Brien's buying in the last fortnight suggests he is quickly moving towards a level that would surpass the 26.7 per cent stake in IN&M held by its chief, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, the dominant figure in the organisation for more than three decades.

While crossing that threshold would have huge symbolic significance, these observers believe that to do so is well within Mr O'Brien's reach at this point.

He would cross the 25 per cent threshold before that, a level of shareholding that would enable him to block special resolutions put to a vote of shareholders.

The election of directors is categorised as an ordinary resolution so only a simple majority of shareholders is required for that. While a simple majority is also required for large-scale deals, any proposal to buy out IN&M would be categorised as a special resolution.