Eamonn Rothwell has officially succeeded in his €1.2 billion management buyout (MBO) bid to acquire Irish Continental Group (ICG). At the rescheduled extraordinary general meeting and scheme meetings held on Thursday morning, 10 September 2026, shareholders voted to approve the takeover despite weeks of heavy resistance from minority investors.
To pass, the deal required a supermajority of at least 75pc approval from the voting shares. The management team’s own 23.7pc stake was excluded from the vote. Two final tallies cleared the hurdle:
- Scheme Meeting: 79.2pc of the scheme shares voted in favour of the acquisition.
- Extraordinary General Meeting: 83.3pc of the votes cast approved the EGM resolutions to implement the deal.
The €8-per-share cash offer, executed through the vehicle Bluefin Bidco Limited, was initially on the brink of collapse in August. High-profile minority shareholders—including Marathon Asset Management, Janus Henderson, Oxy Capital, and Nick Furlong’s Pageant Investments—publicly opposed the deal, arguing that it significantly undervalued the Irish Ferries operator.
The independent board took the critical step of adjourning the original August 28th vote by 13 days. This delay gave the management team crucial time to engage with shareholders and allowed unsubmitted or swing votes to ultimately tip the scale in Rothwell’s favour.
