Irish Press plc survives bitter annual meeting

Irish Press plc shareholders failed to move a resolution to have the company wound up at its annual general meeting yesterday. Dissident shareholders also unsuccessfully opposed the re-election of Mr Vincent Jennings as chairman. During the course of the meeting there were heated exchanges between the shareholders and company management.

Irish Press plc is the holding company for Irish Press Newspapers (IPN), which published the three newspaper titles and which went into liquidation with debts approaching £20 million. More than 600 people also lost their jobs.

Some shareholders expressed puzzlement at the meeting about managing director, Dr Eamon de Valera's role and the amount he earned in a company which did not trade.

They were told he earned £75,000 a year. He got "minimal expenses" and a company car, which had been purchased from the IPN liquidator for £4,000. The company had offices in Merrion Square. These cost £20,000 a year to rent.

After the meeting, Dr de Valera told The Irish Times that his office hours were usually around 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

After some lengthy questioning, the chairman, Mr Jennings, told the handful of shareholders in attendance that the company also employed two secretarial staff. He said he took great exception to previous media reports which said the company employed seven people. He said, for his part, he was paid £5,000 a year as a director.

Mr Jennings told the shareholders - many of whom were strongly critical of the board - that it would not be in the company's best interests to liquidate Irish Press plc.

He said the company had some unfinished business which Dr de Valera was overseeing. This comprises a libel action against the offices of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and of the Attorney General and a case against Warburg Pincus, a US bank.

The directors of Irish Press Publications (IPP) - a second wholly-owned subsidiary which owned the three Irish Press newspaper titles - are suing the office of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment - at that time held by Mr Richard Bruton - because of criticisms he made about their management of the company. Mr Jennings told The Irish Timesthat they had been "grossly libelled".

Irish Press plc is suing Warburg Pincus which, it claims, induced Irish Press to enter a joint venture agreement with Ingersoll Publications Ltd which had caused them severe loss and damage.

Mr Jennings said the company was confident of winning this case.

Shareholders asked how many legal actions the directors were involved in and were told it was just these two.

They also questioned the company on what it was doing to try to revive the titles. Mr Jennings cautioned that it would be very difficult to do so. They could not do it on their own and they had received no proposals when they put the papers up for sale.

However, he said the company was willing to talk to anyone about reviving the papers.

Mr Jennings and Dr de Valera endured two-and-a-half hours of trenchant criticism for their handling of the Irish Press companies. Many of the shareholders present opposed Mr Jennings's re-election. Dr de Valera gave a ringing endorsement of Mr Jennings, saying he was the most successful editor of the Sunday Press. However, this was hotly disputed by shareholders, including Mr John O'Connor, who said Mr Jennings had presided over a slide in sales. In the event, the shareholders were outnumbered by proxy votes held by Dr de Valera, and Mr Jennings was re-elected.

Mr Jennings also ruled that a resolution proposed by shareholder, Ms Loreta Clarke, to wind up Irish Press plc because it no longer fulfils the function for which it was formed, could not be accepted because the board had not been given 21 days notice.

In response to repeated shareholder questioning of Dr de Valera's role, they were told he also manages the company's investments. The company also has a pension fund for Dr de Valera. However, Mr Jennings assured shareholders that there was "no question of giving lifelong salaries". He said Irish Press was "not a pension fund".

Ms Clarke said the directors were doing nothing but "thinking up libel actions" to take and using shareholders' funds to take them.