The board of Irish Continental Group, the company which owns Irish Ferries, has agreed to back a takeover offer for the company from a group of senior managers led by its chief executive.
The independent members of the board said agreement had been reached with the group on an €18.50 per share offer which values the company at €471m.
In a statement to the stock exchange this morning, Irish Continental Group said the directors not involved in the plan would be prepared to recommend the offer, but warned that it was subject to a number of conditions.
The directors involved in the buy-out plan include Chief Executive Eamonn Rothwell and Directors Gearoid O'Dea and Tony Kelly.
Irish Continental operates passenger car ferries to the UK and France and freight services between Ireland and the UK.
Recently the company has been meeting a decline in passenger numbers by restructuring its cost base, which has included outsourcing crew.
Meanwhile, ICG has reported pre-tax profits of €32.3m for last year, after a loss of €15.8m in 2005 when the company was hit by industrial action at Irish Ferries over its controversial cost-cutting plan.
Earlier this year it emerged that the taxpayer was to pay Irish Ferries €4.3m towards redundancy costs for over 500 Irish seafarers. They were made redundant last year and replaced by lower paid workers from Eastern Europe.
ICG attributed the profits improvement to lower costs and an increase in freight revenue, but fuel costs jumped by more than 12% to €32.8m.
In the ferries division, which includes Irish Ferries, underlying profits more than doubled to €28.6m. This was despite a 6.4% fall in passenger numbers and a 3.3% drop in car numbers as it continued to suffer from competition from airlines.
