DCC founder Jim Flavin has resigned from his post as executive chairman and director of the company.
Jim Flavin (left) , Executive Chairman, and Fergal O'Dwyer, Chief Financial Officer, at the presentation of DCC results, in Dublin, earlier this month.
This follows continued pressure on the holding company’s board to withdraw their support for Mr Flavin following a Supreme Court ruling that he engaged in illegal insider dealing when selling Fyffes shares in 2000.
In a statement released this evening, DCC announced that Mr Flavin had resigned with immediate effect.
It said: “Mr Flavin informed the Board today that, due to the continuing uncertainty arising from the outcome of the litigation with Fyffes, it was in the interests of the Company and its shareholders for him to resign as Executive Chairman and a director of DCC.”
Mr Flavin told the Board: "While I am resigning, I firmly hold the view that I have always acted honourably and in what I believe to be the best interests of the Company and all its shareholders".
The Board has appointed Michael Buckley as non-executive Chairman.
DCC also issued a second statement tonight stating it had been informed that the Director of Corporate Enforcement intends to seek a High Court application to allow his inspectors investigate the transactions surrounding DCC’s purchase and disposal of Fyffes shares.
The application seeks to "examine and define the transactions which were related to the acquisition, maintenance, transfer and disposal of the beneficial and legal interests of the three Companies in Fyffes plc between February 1995 and April 2000".
The statement said the Board of DCC was taking legal advice in relation to the application and would not comment at this time.
Last week the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement, saying it was not appropriate for Mr Flavin to remain in his position in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
The IAIM, whose membership include the investment arms of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank, described the court’s ruling as "hugely significant" and said it disagreed with the stance of the company’s board which had, up until then, backed Mr Flavin in his position.
The statement followed last month’s legal settlement between DCC and Fyffes over Mr Flavin's sale of DCC's stake in Fyffes in 2000.
The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Flavin held insider information about Fyffes when selling the shares, for a profit of €85 million, in deals executed not long before Fyffes issued a profit warning.
The DCC board had long maintained the position that the transactions "did not involve any intentional wrongdoing" by Mr Flavin and that they constituted "in essence" an unwitting breach of civil law.