O'Brien buys more IN&M shares and is close to acquiring blocking stake

DENIS O'BRIEN has increased his stake in Independent News & Media (IN&M) to within a whisker of 20 per cent, bringing his interest in the company close to the level at which he could block any bid for the business from a rival camp.

Mr O'Brien has repeatedly attacked the stewardship of IN&M by its chief executive and largest shareholder, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, and is presumed to be engaged in a long-term plan to mount a bid for the business. However he has never made any public comment on the ultimate intentions for his investment.

IN&M has rejected each of Mr O'Brien's criticisms of the company's governance, strategy and management. Mr O'Brien has taken advantage of new weakness in IN&M's share price to bring his stake in the firm to 19.35 per cent from the 18.05 per cent share he declared on January 30th.

Mr O'Brien is believed to be building his stake towards 29.9 per cent - after which he would have to mount an outright bid for IN&M.

If he crosses the 20 per cent threshold he would, by definition, be able to prevent anyone else from crossing the 80 per cent threshold, a level at which any rival would be empowered to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares in a company.

The flipside of that is that Sir Anthony's 26.7 per cent stake means that he cannot be compulsorily bought out either.

IN&M shares fell below €2 late last week and the stock closed one cent weaker last night at €1.95½.

The price is significantly below the €3.80 range around which Mr O'Brien was buying stock last June and below the level of around €2.51 when he first took a position in IN&M in January 2006. The decline in IN&M's share price, despite Mr O'Brien's consistent buying is seen as an indicator that a full bid is not imminent.

There was no comment last evening from a spokesman for Mr O'Brien on the latest share purchases. Neither was there any comment from IN&M. Sir Anthony moved last month to strengthen his position when Clear Channel Communications, a US media group perceived to be a "friendly" investor, took a 4.7 per cent stake in IN&M.

This was executed by way of an all-share deal in which IN&M bought out the 50 per cent stake in African outdoor advertiser Clear Channel Independent that it did not already own.