This article is from page 51 of the 2007-12-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 51 JPG
CALLS were made yesterday by a number of shareholders set to benefit in the €7.2 million from the pro- posed sale of Clare FM that the sta- tion’s 30 staff should also profit from the sale.
Yesterday was ‘D-Day’ for the sta- tion’s shareholders to decide on the acceptance of the Radio Kerry offer for the station.
The offer values individual shares at €20 each — almost 20 times what shareholders paid for the shares in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
A cross-section of the Clare public is set to benefit following a success- ful share drive in the early 1990s and three of those who opted for minor shareholdings, Cllr Christy Cur- tin (Ind), Cllr Pat Keane (FF) and Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind) yesterday called on the Clare FM Board to en- sure that the station’s staff share in the anticipated windfall.
The station’s only two employees set to profit from the sale are chief executive, Liam O’Shea and the station’s Head of Operation, Susan Murphy.
Mr O’Shea set to receive €407,300 through his 20,365 shares and
Ms Murphy is set to receive over €200,000.
Details of the sale circulated to shareholders show no indication of a bonus scheme for the station’s 30 employees.
Cllr Curtin is to receive €2,000 through his 100 shares and he said yesterday, “I believe that the station’s staff should share in the money from the sale and their interests should be protected.
‘This must be done to ensure that there is continuity and stability in the station’s staff so there must be a mechanism in place to allow the staff access a share of the money.”
Cllr Frankie Neylon is set to receive €4,000 and he said: “I would hope that the staff will profit from the sale and there jobs would be secured.”
Kilkee-based Cllr Pat Keane said: “IT would be disappointed if there wasn’t in place a scheme for staff to purchase shares. They should have been given that opportunity. Staff play an important role and if they were given an opportunity to pur- chase, they would take additional interest in the station.”
Other politicians set to benefit from the sale are Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (€4,000), Cllr PJ
Kelly (€2,000), Cllr Martin Laft- ferty (€1,000), while retired Fine Gael TD, Donal Carey is to receive €2,000.
Cllr PJ Kelly quipped yesterday,*! thought it was a subscription I was buying back then. It was done with a sense of patriotism. It 1s a fairly good return on the investment made and better than some of the other invest- ments I’ve made.”
The figures show that the Ennis Chamber of Commerce Is set to re- ceive €50,000 from its 2,500 share- holding, while prominent Ennis busi- ness man, Oliver Moylan is to receive €10,000 from his 500 shares.
Cllr Keane said that is glad that he did not take up on the €2 buy-back offer from the Clare FM Board two years.
The share-offer was not widely tak- en up after founding chief executive, Caimin Jones dismissed the offer as “much too low”’.
The move comes against the back- eround of growing profits and listen- ership for Clare FM.
The annual returns for 2006 show that the company increased its annu- al profits to €240,000 on a turnover of €1.9 million.