Investors sought meeting after ILP CEO's resignation refused

IRISH LIFE Investment Managers (ILIM) backed moves by the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) to seek a meeting with the senior independent director of its parent, Irish Life Permanent (ILP) after the ILP board initially declined to accept the resignation of its chief executive Denis Casey.

IAIM members are understood to have instructed its chief executive Frank O’Dwyer – in line with the provisions of the Combined Code on corporate governance – to seek an explanation about the stance of the ILP board in relation to Mr Casey’s offer to resign.

The manoeuvre, agreed before lunchtime on Friday, illustrates that senior members of the investment community were not happy with the initial response of the ILP board to the disclosure of multi-billion euro circular transactions between the institution and Anglo Irish Bank.

The ILP contact in question would have been Finbar Sheehan, former deputy chairman of TSB Bank and senior independent director with ILP. However, the process came to a halt on Friday when it became clear that Mr Casey was leaving the institution.

ILIM was not party to the IAIM deliberations in respect of IAIM on Friday morning. However, the company is understood to have indicated support for the expected manoeuvre before Mr Casey’s resignation was made public by ILP on Friday afternoon.

ILP came under immediate pressure from the Government on Friday morning after a statement issued shortly before 3am that day indicated that Mr Casey was to remain in office, while group finance director, Peter Fitzpatrick, and head of group treasury, David Gantly, were leaving.

ILP chairwoman Gillian Bowler was summonsed to meet Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan for a second time in two days to discuss the situation. She asked to meet Mr O’Dwyer yesterday.

Last night, he said he was pleased to have been given an opportunity to convey the concerns of institutional investors directly to the company. He was also pleased to hear directly from Ms Bowler about the extent of the board’s concern about the nature of the transactions with Anglo.