Within minutes of the defeated Glanbia Co-op proposal to buy out Glanbia plc’s Irish Dairy operation, talk of a ‘Lisbon II’-like re-run was immediately raised amongst the media assembled at Kildaton.
And given the noises emitted at the plc’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday of last week, it would appear that such a scenario could already have been set in motion.
Having re-iterated that there was “no Plan B” after both the May 10th ballot and AGM; Glanbia Co-op Chairman Liam Herlihy said that a post-mortem into the process was “only right and proper”.
Mr Herlihy suggested that this process would take place within the next “four to six weeks” during which time a decision to put the deal before shareholders again would be discussed.
“We have a clear mandate to have discussions with our members and it’s right and proper that they take place,” he said.
For his part, plc Chief Executive John Maloney said that offering any indication on what such a process might lead to would be “premature to prejudge” on his behalf.
The AGM, which was attended by 120 shareholders in Kilkenny, saw several speakers from the floor express their opinions on the proposed €350 million deal that fell short in Kildalton.
Said one speaker: “When people voted for Glanbia to become a plc many years ago, we never knew we’d have to pay €350m to get our co-op back.”
In a letter to The Munster Express, Kilmacthomas resident Thomas Hickey said that three questions were “not answered or answered unsatisfactorily” at the May 10th Special General Meeting.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story.
