The following is a statement issued by Crean in response to yesterday's Business Opinion column:

The article by Bill Murdoch in yesterday's Irish Times, titled "Crean should identify mystery shareholders", is potentially misleading to Crean shareholders.

Mr Murdoch uses the data provided in the company's annual report to conclude incorrectly that there are two mystery shareholders in Crean holding 40 per cent. This seems to have arisen because of the assumption that the shareholding analysis given on the last page of the annual report is an analysis of beneficial holdings whereas it relates to registered shareholdings. A large proportion of the shares in Crean are held through nominee companies such as Bank of Ireland Nominees or AIB Custodial Nominees Limited, who are nominee shareholders only and who hold the shares on behalf of other parties.

In the light of Mr Murdoch's article, we now make the following statement:

1. There are no large mystery shareholders as implied by Mr Murdoch.

2. Crean has exercised its rights under Section 81 on a number of occasions to ask a registered shareholder to identify the parties for which it acts as a nominee and no party has ever refused to provide the information requested.

3. Crean has disclosed all disclosures made to it by shareholders in compliance with company law and stock exchange regulations.

4. At 31 December 1998, 63.3 per cent of the shares in Crean were held by registered shareholders holding in excess of 500,000 shares. The fact is that over 80 per cent of the 63.3 per cent were shares held by nominees and the number of beneficial shareholders behind these nominees is likely to have been a substantial number. By way of illustration, as at 29 June 1999, one nominee firm held 21.4 per cent of Crean on behalf of 46 parties.

5. Mr Murdoch's statement that "no-one from Crean has been available for comment" could be interpreted as an attempt by Crean to avoid questions on this issue. No executive in Crean was aware of Mr Murdoch's interest in this matter until it was read in today's Irish Times.

Bill Murdoch comments:

The fact remains that six shareholders own 63.3 per cent of Crean and, as Crean says that over 80 per cent of these are nominees, they are therefore unidentified. IBI Nominees is identified as a beneficial shareholder in Crean's annual report, but the identity of the two registered nominee firms (now said to be holding the shares on behalf of many nominees) is not.

The question about two unidentified shareholders holding 40 per cent of Crean was put to a spokesman for the company last week and the company did not respond.