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, which did not include those involved in the buy-out plan, said agreement had been reached with the group on an €18.50 per share offer which values the company at €471m.
The directors involved in the buy-out plan include chief executive Eamonn Rothwell, Gearoid O'Dea, Tony Kelly, John Reilly and Tom Corcoran. They already own 14% of the company. Mr Rothwell owns just over 82% of the takeover vehicle, called Aella, which is being backed financially by AIB.
ICG chairman John McGuckian said the deal was 'a fair and attractive opportunity' for shareholders.
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 cost-cutting plan.
Turnover rose by 4.6% to €312m, while operating profits - which strip out once-off costs such as redundancy payments - were up from €18.1m to €32.2m.
Earlier this year it emerged that the taxpayer was to pay Irish Ferries €4.3m towards the cost of making over 500 Irish seafarers redundant last year and replacing them with lower paid workers from Eastern Europe.
ICG attributed the improvement to lower costs and an increase in freight revenue, but fuel costs jumped by more than 12% to €32.8m. Adjusted earnings per share were 25.5 cent. The group is holding off on paying a dividend after this morning's MBO proposal.
In the ferries division, turnover rose from €162.5m to €170m, while 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. But freight volumes rose by 12.6%.
Turnover in ICG's container and terminal division rose by 4.5% to €142m, but profits were down almost 15% to €3.6m, as fuel costs and charter costs rose and container volumes fell slightly.
Shares in the company closed up 22%, up €3.45, at €19.05 in Dublin this evening.
