ONE MORE THING: ONE51'S ANNUAL report was distributed yesterday and made for grim reading. A loss for the year of €104.6 million in 2010 was 10 times the deficit recorded in the previous year. Ouch.
This was due largely to a €95 million writedown in the value of its holding in NTR, which only last week announced a loss of €381 million for 2010 for its own recession-worn bag of investments.
Its investment in NTR “remains a matter of concern for the board”, chairman Donal Buckley said ominously.
On a brighter note, Buckley said “significant advances” have been made in improving its financial transparency and corporate governance.
These were key issues in the campaign for change run last year against former boss Philip Lynch.
Accountants Grant Thornton were asked to conduct a review of its compliance with corporate governance standards in the second half of 2010, following a stormy agm.
The results must have shareholders scratching their heads.
Page four of the annual report states that the Grant Thornton report concludes that “both from a structure and process perspective, with the exception of some limited areas, a number of which stem from recent new corporate governance guidelines, One51 is in compliance with best practice laid down by governance standards”.
This is vindication of Lynch’s stewardship of the business, say his advocates.
Not so fast. Pages 31 and 32 outline the areas of non-compliance. In total, there were 16, some of which have still to be addressed.
These include the fact that there was no senior independent director on the board until Finbarr O’Neill’s appointment last month, and that no formal letters of appointment had been issued to non-executive directors, which has since been rectified.
Other issues related to the composition of the board; appraisals of performance by executives and board members; the formulation of policies for whistleblowing and risk; disclosure of executive remuneration; and a “high-level” review of the system of internal controls.
These are important items in the context of how the company is run and investors might wonder how the company could be in compliance with best practice when such gaps existed.
There was a deafening silence on the matter yesterday from One51.
