Dermot is still ducking and diving at Aer Lingus
IF ducking and diving were an Olympic sport, then Aer Lingus boss Dermot Mannion would be a gold medallist.
Not once, but twice, he has managed to successfully wriggle out of demands from Ryanair -- his largest single shareholder-- for an EGM to vote on the Aer Lingus decision to switch its Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast.
Under Irish company law shareholders with 10 per cent or more of a company can call an EGM. When Aer Lingus caused uproar last month by depriving Shannon of its God-given right to valuable Heathrow slots, Ryanair quickly petitioned for an EGM.
Aer Lingus, citing competition reasons, has twice turned down Ryanair's EGM requests, the most recent one last week.
While Aer Lingus may be within its rights to refuse Ryanair's EGM request, it's hard to resist the conclusion that it is at least violating the spirit, if not the letter of company law. With Ryanair now threatening to go down the legal route if its EGM request is not met, this saga has a bit further to run.
Regardless of the final outcome, the standoff between the airlines shows the inherently unstable nature of the Aer Lingus share register. Apart from Ryanair with 29.4 per cent, the State retains 25.3 per cent, the employee share ownership plan (ESOP) has 14.4 per cent while Denis O'Brien and the pilots have about 2 per cent each.
With the exception of the ESOP and maybe the pilots, none of these are natural long-term holders. If Ryanair fails to overturn the EU Commission's decision to block its bid then its stake is for sale to the highest bidder, while the Government would also prefer to exit the airline.
All of which means that, even if Mannion succeeds in blocking an EGM, Michael O'Leary will still end up as kingmaker when the inevitable Aer Lingus takeover happens.
