The decision not to put the outgoing chief executive Gavin O’Reilly’s €1.8m exit payment to a vote of Independent News & Media (INM) shareholders was called “unacceptable and unjustifiable” by Manifest, the British shareholder advisory group.
The advisory group described the payout, at 2.5 times salary, as “substantially in excess of an amount likely to be considered reasonable by shareholders”.
Paul Connolly, an INM director, and a nominee of largest shareholder Denis O’Brien, is mounting a High Court challenge this Wednesday to the INM board’s decision not to put the payment to a shareholder vote.
Two days later, Connolly faces a re-election vote at the INM annual shareholder meeting. The board is recommending he is not reappointed, saying his action is “disruptive and inimical to the proper functioning of a board of directors”.