Shareholders approve Eircom's delisting and sale

Fixed-line and mobile operator Eircom is set to delist from the stock exchange over the next month after shareholders voted in favour of the telecom company's sale to Australian investor Babcock & Brown and its own employees yesterday.

Following a meeting that approved the transaction yesterday, chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly and chief executive Philip Nolan predicted that it would most likely be August 18th when the company exits the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges for the second time in four years.

Eircom will apply to the authorities on both markets on August 17th to have its shares removed from their official lists and to end trading in the stock. An Eircom statement issued after yesterday's meeting said that the dates were indicative only.

Investment fund Babcock & Brown, which has held a stake in the company since last year, and Eircom's employee share ownership trust (Esot) are taking over the company in a deal valuing it at €2.36 billion.

Other shareholders were required to approve the sale at an extraordinary meeting in Dublin yesterday. Over 99 per cent of them voted in favour of the motions required to allow the transaction to pass the final stages.

As Babcock and the Esot already held more than 50 per cent of Eircom's stock, the votes were considered to be a formality.

The company also held its annual general meeting yesterday. In his address, Sir Anthony said that there had been "healthy disagreement" during 2005 about a number of issues, and particularly the company's €420 million purchase of mobile operator Meteor.

Speaking after the meeting, he said that the decision had been vindicated, despite media criticism claiming that it had paid too much for the company. He pointed out that as the company had 400,000 subscribers at the time of the sale last autumn, the cost per customer worked out at €1,000.

"We actually have more customers now, probably over 700,000, so you could say that the cost per customer has dropped to €600, which by any standards in the mobile space is very cheap," he argued.

Mr Nolan indicated yesterday that he will be stepping down as chief executive of Eircom following the completion of the sale.