Shareholders have today seen an early benefit of the recently implemented Shareholder Rights Directive, as Ryanair finally disclosed the voting results of one of its AGMs for the benefit of those shareholders unable to attend the meeting in person. Earlier this month, Ryanair was the subject of a complaint by Manifest to the Irish Stock Exchange for its failure to disclose its non-compliance (or any explanations for non-compliance) with provision D.2.2 of the Combined Code (relating to the results of the AGM voting at their 2008 and 2007 AGMs) in their annual reports for the last two years.
The voting results of todays meeting – or rather the results of the proxies lodged ahead of the meeting as no poll was taken – show that three directors received more than double the average level of dissent recorded on resolutions to elect directors at Irish companies over the past 12 months. According to Manifest’s review of the 2008-09 voting season, directors standing for election at companies in the ISEQ 20 received average dissenting votes (being against votes or abstentions) of 5.2% of the votes cast.
Manifest’s pre-AGM research report to clients noted that:
- Kyran McLaughlinis Deputy Chairman and Head of Capital Markets at Davy Stockbrokers. Davy Stockbrokers are one of the Group’s stockbrokers and provide corporate advisory services to the Group from time to time;
- Michael Horgan receives consultancy fees; and
- Each of the non-executive directors holds outstanding options over shares in the Company.
Each of the directors are considered independent by the company.
| Director |
Against | Abstain | Total Dissent |
| Michael Horgan | 8.24% | 0.80% | 9.04% |
| Kyran McLaughlin | 10.03% | 0.07% | 10.10% |
| Paolo Pietrogrande | 8.86% | 0.79% | 9.65% |
The full results of the voting on the Ryanair AGM are available on Manifest VoteWatch.