Reynolds roasted despite 'generosity'

The Bula Resources annual general meeting in the Radisson Hotel, Dublin, on Monday was, as always, a bizarre affair.

The cost of the meeting for the company, whose shares have been suspended since April, in the not-inexpensive hotel was, according to some sources, met indirectly by Mr Albert Reynolds, the non-executive chairman, who loaned some money to the company to keep it going. Even the stamps on the annual report sent out to shareholders were, reportedly, paid for by him.

Despite the sorry state of the company and Mr Reynolds's generosity towards it, quite a number of shareholders turned up with the intention of giving him a good roasting and, if possible, preventing his re-election. The experienced politician, after testing the mood of the shareholders, announced he was not going to put himself forward again. That took some, but by no means all, of the heat out of the meeting. What will happen next is anyone's guess. Final implosion is certainly a possibility.

The meeting wasn't without its lighter moments. One shareholder stood up to query why the company was always pursuing deals in countries that were so different from Western liberal democracies like Ireland. Why deal so much with cultures we don't understand? Wouldn't there be less confusion if the company looked for deals closer to home? Why not look for deals in Ireland?

Of course, the answer came: "Because there's no oil here." And that ended that particular debate.