Ryanair's chairman left bloodied but unbowed by shareholder revolt

David Bonderman received the support of 70.5 per cent of the votes cast at the company's AGM, but that makes him the least popular chairman in Ireland's ISEQ 20 share index

Still flying: Ryanair's chairman David Bonderman has survived an investor rebellion

There were some fun and games had at Ryanair’s countryside AGM, where a ban on the media was abruptly reversed after the FT and the Irish Times got in by legitimate means. The ban was always patently ridiculous: it only takes a solitary share and you're in.

Another thing that I suspect might have played a role in the change in heart, however, was the foreknowledge that embattled chairman David Bondsman was going to emerge from the event battered rather than booted.

He was re-elected with the support of 70.5 per cent of the votes cast.

It looks comfy, and Ryanair will play it like that, but in corporate terms it really isn't.

Big investors are usually loathe to vote against directors. On those rare occasions when they express dissent, they tend to like to do it in ways that are essentially meaningless, like abstaining in non binding votes on company remuneration reports.

When a director gets anything less than 98 per cent support it is akin to them getting punched in the mouth. Less than, say, 75 per cent and they're having the blood mopped off them while the ambulance rushes them to A&E.

The Independent Transport Workers Federation said the vote had made Mr Bonderman the least popular chairman in Ireland’s benchmark ISEQ 20 Index. Ouch!

But while Mr Bonderman might have been bloodied, it’s Ryanair, so it’s likely that he’ll remain unbowed.

CEO Michael O’Leary and co have been flipping off their customers, regulators, unions and workers for as long as anyone can remember. For the most part it’s worked, which is why big shareholders have slept comfortably in first class. Show me the money!

Except that recently it hasn’t, with the company bedevilled by unrest; cancellations, industrial strife, even strikes. These are the sort of things that threaten to put cash parties on hold.

A lot of investors feel that a change is required at the top to prevent that from happening. Mr Bonderman has been chairman for more than 20 years. It makes his august title rather apt: he’s like part of the furniture.

A replacement might be better placed to keep Mr O’Leary in check, so the thinking goes, and if that happens institutional shareholders seem to think they'll be able to go back to sleep and forget about irksome things like exercising meaningful oversight when it comes to they companies they own.

I'm not convinced.

The rebellion is welcome, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to bring Mr O’Leary to heel. Ryanair’s unhappy stakeholders had best gird their loins, because it’ll probably get worse before it gets better.

Still, at least the ill wind that’s been blowing through the airport has finally found its way into investors' fancy offices. That almost makes it refreshing.