The head of the eIsland group, Denis O'Brien, has said he thinks the smaller shareholder in Ireland has been disenfranchised by the decision of the eircom board to recommend the takeover by rival group Valentia.
Mr O'Brien said that in his experience the highest price normally won and added that in this case, the board of eircom had given an assurance that this would occur.
The eircom board yesterday recommended that shareholders accept the Tony O'Reilly-led Valentia consortium's bid for the fixed line assets of the company.
Shareholders can either take a cash offer of 127 cents, or 125 cents in cash with warrants. Valentia says this is equivalent to nearly 130.81 cents in guaranteed cash terms now. This compares with the eIsland all cash offer of 130.5 cents.
The ESOT's 15% stake in the company was already in the bag for Valentia and KPN and Telia agreed yesterday to sell their 35% to them. The institutions, with their 30% will probably carry Valentia over the 80%. Other shareholders will then be forced to sell.
