Denis O’Brien, the Irish telecoms billionaire, yesterday called on Sir Anthony O’Reilly to sell The Independent newspaper and resign as the chief executive of the company behind the loss-making London-based title.

Mr O’Brien, an unhappy 11 per cent shareholder in Sir Anthony’s Independent News & Media, said Sir Anthony was too old to run a modern newspaper business, and that by leaving he would save millions of euros.

“The Independent has to go, as do other vanity projects,” Mr O’Brien told The Times in an uncompromising interview. “If he goes, and The Independent is sold, shareholders will save money. This is a company that is going nowhere.”

Dramatically escalating the row between the two Irish plutocrats, Mr O’Brien said that “Tony O’Reilly would be better off retiring and going off to sort out Waterford Wedgwood. It would be better if he spent time on an old economy business. His three sons should go too; he is running an old-style fiefdom.”

Citigroup estimates that selling The Independent and its Sunday sister would save €19 million (£13.4 million) a year, although IN&M has long claimed that when the contribution that the title makes by providing copy for other titles around the world is taken into account, the figure is lower. The bank has valued the campaigning newspaper at £190 million.

For more than a year, Denis O’Brien has been a rebel shareholder in the newspaper group, which has interests in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well as London.

But he has only openly called for The Independent to be sold and the chief executive to go in the past 24 hours. Since becoming a shareholder he is estimated to have lost up to €50 million on his investment.

He is the second-largest shareholder, after Sir Anthony who owns about 28 per cent, with other board members holding another 1.5 per cent. Mr O’Brien said he would “consider as an option” calling for an extraordinary meeting, but said he was not acting in concert with any other investors.

Gavin O’Reilly, the company’s chief operating officer, and one of Sir Anthony’s sons, said that he was surprised that Mr O’Brien had opted to go public with his demands. “If Denis O’Brien had been so concerned about this, he knows me very well, he could call me at any time. It strikes me that he is less worried about shareholders in Independent News and Media and more about Denis O’Brien.”

The controversy looms at a difficult time for Mr O’Brien, who is worth more than €2 billion, and has businesses ranging from emerging market mobile phone operator Digicel to radio operator Communicorp. In the next few weeks the decade-long Moriarty tribunal is due to come to a conclusion. It is investigating whether Mr O’Brien made any payments to win a licence for a mobile phone group.

That company was called Esat – now part of O2 – and Barry Maloney, its first chief executive, told the tribunal that Mr O’Brien had paid the minister awarding the licences, Michael Lowry, £100,000. Mr O’Brien has disowned the comment.

Global reach

— UK: fourth-ranked quality title The Independent; Belfast Telegraph

— Ireland: leading newspaper publisher

Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald, Sunday World

— South Africa: leading newspaper publisher

The Star, Cape Argus, Daily News and 12 other paid for titles

— Australia: 40 per cent interest, via APN. Regional newspapers in Queensland and New South Wales

— New Zealand: 40 per cent via APN. New Zealand Herald, the largest daily title.

— Interim results: Turnover €815.5 million. Pre-tax profit: 94.1 million

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