DCC EXECUTIVE chairman Jim Flavin will learn within days whether his board's staunch defence of his continuation in office has passed muster with the investment community.
A day after Mr Flavin vowed to continue in office until his scheduled retirement in July 2010, the board issued a statement which said his sale of a major stake in Fyffes in 2000 "did not involve any intentional wrongdoing" on his part and in essence was "an unwitting breach of civil law".
The Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM), the body that represents the investment industry, said it will consider the statement "as a matter of urgency".
Having largely kept its counsel in the 10 months since a decisive Supreme Court judgment found that Mr Flavin engaged in illegal insider trading when selling the shares, it now appears that the IAIM will finally put its view on the record in the coming days. Its stance is not yet known.
Yet if investors were undoubtedly impressed on Monday with a sterling set of financial results from DCC, some sources said yesterday that the statement on the Fyffes case had not swayed unfavourable opinion within that community towards the board and Mr Flavin.
Whether that culminates in votes against company resolutions at DCC's annual meeting in July or in any other action remains to be seen.
As DCC faces calls from certain quarters to name a date for Mr Flavin's retirement before that meeting, early publication of the board's governance report was characterised by some close observers as an implicit acknowledgement of pressure on Mr Flavin.
The alternative explanation is that DCC put the report into the open in advance of investor roadshows on its results so as to avoid having to revisit the issue once the annual report itself is published.
Either way, DCC's notification on Monday that a "comprehensive" statement was on its way gave Mr Flavin room to sidestep reporters' questions at his results press conference on Monday. He was not available last evening to answer further questions.
Referring to inaccurate media reports but not identifying them, the document revisits ground covered in two previous stock exchange statements and in an interview in this paper with DCC senior independent director Michael Buckley.
It is given that little has changed in the firm's account of the rationale behind its unstinting support for Mr Flavin, although the latest statement is longer and provides a higher level of detail on the board's deliberations.
Composed of some of the most eminent figures in Irish business, the board still relies on favourable aspects of the High Court ruling on the case from Ms Justice Laffoy. It highlights where the Supreme Court pays tribute to that judge but has nothing to say about where she was was ruled to have erred.
DCC claims: "The finding of the High Court that the share dealings in February 2000 did not involve the use or exploitation by Jim Flavin of the information in the trading reports was not appealed and was not affected by the Supreme Court decision. The Fyffes case was a civil action and did not involve any allegation or finding of dishonesty, fraud or crime."
However, Ms Justice Susan Denham made it clear in her Supreme Court judgment that it was illegal for a person connected with a company to deal in its shares if by reason of his connection with the company he held information that was not generally available and which was likely materially to affect the price of those shares.
Mr Flavin is not for turning, but this saga is not yet at an end.
