Heiton patronises shareholder

It really is time that the Heiton Holdings board stopped behaving as if its shareholders are little children - the comments at last week's annual general meeting about Grafton's stake building in Heiton were tantamount to treating shareholders as if they had come down in the last shower.

It isn't good enough for chairman Stephen O'Connor to blandly say that Heiton welcomes all shareholders when asked about Grafton's stake building. Heiton shareholders have been reading for months about Grafton's continued buying of Heiton shares and the speculation about a subsequent bid or merger.

And they have reason to assume that their board of directors would use the annual meeting - the only forum in the year when shareholders can question their board - to get some enlightenment on its thinking.

Likewise, the Heiton board's contention that the company's decision to dump Goodbody and appoint Davy as its broker was part of a regular review of its advisers, is hardly convincing.

As far as the market is concerned, Heiton simply did not want to share its broker with Grafton (where Goodbody is also broker), especially if Heiton ends up in merger talks with its bigger rival. In that situation, it would be impossible for both companies to have the same broker.

Add in this week's appointment of former IBI Corporate Finance boss Richard Keatinge to the Heiton board as a non-executive director and the recent moves at Heiton have all the hallmarks of beefing up the board expertise in advance of a major move.