{"id":578446,"date":"2026-07-10T10:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578446\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:13:10","slug":"dcc-founder-jim-flavin-blasts-board-for-backing-takeover-on-the-cheap-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578446\/","title":{"rendered":"DCC founder Jim Flavin blasts board for backing takeover \u2018on the cheap\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

DCC<\/a>\u2019s board has shown \u201cvery poor judgment\u201d in recommending a private equity takeover \u201con the cheap\u201d, the founder of the FTSE 100 energy company has said, as he appealed to shareholders to join him in rejecting the \u00a35.7 billion (\u20ac6.7 billion) bid.<\/p>\n

Jim Flavin<\/a>, who set up DCC in Dublin in 1976 and remains the company\u2019s largest private shareholder, said he wanted \u201cto stop this bid if I can\u201d.<\/p>\n

His intervention comes as KKR and Energy Capital Partners, part of London-listed Bridgepoint, must formalise their offer or walk away by next week after a deadline was extended on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the board and management exercised very poor judgment in stating publicly that they were minded to recommend a bid at \u00a365.25,\u201d Flavin, who retired from DCC in 2008 and holds a 3.22 per cent stake, told the FT. He believes \u201ca price should be around \u00a3100 [per share] or more\u201d.<\/p>\n

His criticism of the \u00a365.25-per-share offer in cash plus \u00a31.47 in dividends comes after big investors Fidelity International<\/a>, Aviva Investors<\/a> and Ninety One blasted the bid as too low and significantly undervaluing the company\u2019s growth prospects.<\/p>\n

The revised offer \u2013 increased from \u00a358 per share \u2013 represents a premium of 24.5 per cent on DCC\u2019s share price before the bidding consortium\u2019s initial proposal on April 28th, rebuffed by the company. <\/p>\n

Before that, analysts\u2019 average target price for London-listed DCC had been \u00a357.83.<\/p>\n

DCC said: \u201cThe board has a duty to act in the best interests of the company\u2019s shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Flavin, Wednesday\u2019s negotiation extension was the \u201clast straw\u201d. He has written to other interested parties, whom he declined to name, saying the \u201cboard have effectively put DCC Energy Plc on the market on the cheap\u201d.<\/p>\n

DCC, which is based in Dublin and whose main markets are in Europe and the US, is a former conglomerate that has refocused on energy to provide off-grid solutions such as liquefied gas while operating service stations and fleet services.<\/p>\n

It was a \u201cjuicy morsel\u201d for private equity given that it has long achieved a 20 per cent return on capital and a cash conversion ratio of near 100 per cent, said Flavin, who has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the company for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

Once its technology business is sold \u2013 a \u00a3600 million deal is expected by year-end to complete its refocus \u2013 DCC will be virtually debt-free, he added.<\/p>\n

Flavin praised the transformation of the company \u2013 led by chief executive Donal Murphy<\/a> and chairman Mark Breuer \u2013 but said it was the first time in 50 years he had not felt aligned with the board of \u201chis baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the bid fails, and I hope it does … the chairman will have to think very carefully … why did he recommend that bid?\u201d<\/p>\n

Breuer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The board \u201cshould be encouraging shareholders to stick with us … and don\u2019t consider [a bid] at all unless the price is \u00a3100\u201d, Flavin added. \u201cThat price is a justifiable price commercially and financially and logically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, while he said there was \u201cnothing outlandish\u201d about that price, he conceded there was \u201cabsolutely no chance\u201d of any bid being increased to \u00a3100.<\/p>\n

A successful bid for DCC would mark the latest big departure from the London Stock Exchange in another blow to Britain\u2019s capital markets, following a series of takeovers by private equity and overseas buyers, as well as defections by UK companies to US exchanges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that London is disappearing, nearly, as an important financial market because FTSE 100 companies are being taken over by large US private equity groups,\u201d Flavin said. \u201cThe London market needs support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flavin resigned as executive chairman in 2008 amid Ireland\u2019s first insider trading case over the sale of a DCC stake in fruit importer Fyffes, but Ireland\u2019s Supreme Court in 2009 found he had not been aware he was in possession of price-sensitive information.<\/p>\n

Flavin said he believed DCC had long been undervalued by the market because of its conglomerate status and a \u00a3100-per-share price tag would represent 16.6 times earnings, compared with what he calculated as 10.8 under the current proposal.<\/p>\n

He added that DCC should aspire to emulate the success of Irish building materials giant CRH \u2013 which moved its primary listing from London to New York in 2023 before abandoning London altogether in April \u2013 in becoming a world leader in its field.<\/p>\n

If, however, in the face of shareholder opposition, the board U-turns and rejects the overture, \u201cI\u2019d be the first through the door of DCC with bottles of champagne … [saying] \u2018Thank God you saw the light. Congratulations.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DCC\u2019s board has shown \u201cvery poor judgment\u201d in recommending a private equity takeover \u201con the cheap\u201d, the founder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[36394,79,39991,226985,18,58299,19,17,246163],"class_list":["post-578446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aviva","tag-business","tag-dcc","tag-donal-murphy","tag-eire","tag-fidelity","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-flavin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116895154737529072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}