The recent boardroom spat at Belfast-based UTV didn’t deter Appian Asset Management from investing in the listed media company.

I’m told the Dublin investment group, led by Patrick Lawless, spent €1 million to buy a stake of about 1 per cent in UTV around the time the row was taking place. Appian bought the shares at about €1.44 each, so it is already up about 20 per cent on the investment.

Appian was previously an investor in TVC Holdings, which, in turn, is UTV’s biggest shareholder with an 18 per cent stake.

This move could be part of a wider plan by Appian to put together a new fund for small cap stocks predominantly, but not exclusively, Irish.

UTV was in the headlines in mid-February when long-serving chairman John McGuckian was removed by a majority of the other board members.

The other directors questioned his independence given his role as a director and shareholder in TVC. McGuckian resigned from the board along with fellow directors Shane Reihill (TVC’s executive chairman) and Kevin Lagan.

UTV chief executive John McCann told me this week that a shortlist of candidates for chairman has been drawn up and the group hopes to have a successor identified in time for the company’s agm on May 17th. “That’s still the target, but whether it’s do-able or not I don’t know,” McCann said.