O’Reilly challenged over corporate governance issues

An Irish feud has boiled over into the halls of Australian radio company ARN, after two Irish billionaires began arguing about the corporate governance record of Tony O’Reilly’s Independent News & Media.

A report commissioned by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, who recently built up an 8.35% stake in INM has claimed that INM was “increasingly at risk of being branded a ‘crony’ company”.

His complaint is that most of the board members of INM and APN, the parent company of the Australian Radio Network, are associated with Tony O’Reilly.

The report claimes that “almost all” of INM’s 19 directors are affiliated with O’Reilly and says there were “fears of real misalignment of interests between the O’Reilly family and other shareowners.”

It also says INM’s board is too large.

A INM spokesman says INM is considering whether to take legal action against the dissenting shareholder, who is thought to have his own plans for the company.

INM’s $3 billion privatisation plan for APN was rejected by Australian investors last month.

A spokesman for APN said yesterday that its board was “independent from and separate to” INM’s board and committed to “high standards of legislative compliance and financial and ethical behaviour.”