Paris-based investment firm DNCA Finance and Meath businessman Eamon Waters have emerged as likely kingmakers as Irish Continental Group’s (ICG) chief executive Eamonn Rothwell eyes a crucial vote next week on his €1.2 billion bid to take the ferry operator private, amid opposition from a number of major shareholders. ICG’s independent board overseeing the planned sale said last week that it was aware of at least one instance where a shareholder had wanted to change a vote they had cast against the deal ahead of an extraordinary general meeting (egm) originally scheduled last Friday but adjourned to September 10th. The extension decision was also driven, the board said, by requests from certain private and institutional shareholders for more time to consider their position, having had difficulties in properly casting their votes within the initial time frame allowed.DNCA Finance, which has a 3.36 per cent stake in ICG, is the unnamed investor that had changed its voting stance, according to sources. Market sources also say Waters’s Sretaw investment vehicle, with a 3.79 per cent equity stake and a further 2.1 per cent interest by way of non-votable financial instruments, has been keeping ICG guessing about which way it will lean, having not voted by proxy ahead of the originally scheduled egm. Holders of about 20 per cent of the stock had not filed votes by a deadline before the original egm, according to sources. The management team’s 23.7 per cent stake in ICG is excluded from the vote. It requires at least 75 per cent approval to go through under a so-called scheme of arrangement structure overseen by the High Court. The Currency reported on Monday that the management buyout team had been “within a single-digit percentage” of what is required to secure the vote. Has the Government’s strategy to keep fuel costs down proved to be ‘knee-jerk’ and difficult to reverse? Listen | 34:57kingmakersThe combined ordinary shares of DNCA and Sretaw – amounting to 7.15 per cent – could be pivotal to the outturn of next week’s egm. ICG directors are known to have been canvassing investors that had opposed the €8-a-share deal with Rothwell and three other ICG managers, claiming it undervalued the business and its prospects.The dissenting investors include Marathon Asset Management, Janus Henderson, Pageant Investments, Equus Global and Oxy Capital. These owned a combined stake of about 11 per cent when they first raised objections to the deal on August 12th. That has since gone up marginally. However, some of the more recently acquired shares cannot be used to vote as the trades were not settled by the voting record date of August 24th – the cut-off date for deciding who controls shares that can be counted in the vote.Private clients of investment firm Brewin Dolphin, who own 4.48 per cent of ICG and had largely previously voted against the deal, have also been targeted and asked to reconsider ahead of next week’s meeting, the Currency reported earlier this week.