Activists fail in Pacific Dairies board spill
Activist investor Mustafa Hasan’s attempt to replace the board at Pacific Dairies has been voted down.
Hasan and fellow shareholders Dursan Cansiz, William Clarke and Necmi Uysal requested the board spill in January. They proposed replacing Directors Paul Duckett, Ray Taylor, and Chris Egan with Rhett Morson, Ping Huang, and Alan Mitchell. It is the second request for a Board spill in four months.
Unhappy shareholders win at Metallica’s general meeting
Metallica shareholders have voted to remove the Board of Simon Slesarewich, Michael Hansel, and Alan Evans with investor nominees Theo Psaros, Scott Waddell and Andrew Gillies.
It follows a busy December at the Bauxite miner, when former Chairman Peter Turnbull and Director Ian Jacobson were replaced by Michael Hansel and Alan Evans following the initial request by a group of shareholders, holding 5.2% of the company, for a board spill.
Nvoi’s co-founders seek to spill the board
Nvoi’s co-founders and major shareholders are challenging the company’s board, requisitioning a meeting to replace all four directors and appoint themselves and Angus Washington to the board.
Nvoi has set the date for the Meeting at 29 March and the incumbent board has said it will recommend shareholders vote against all the activists’ resolutions.
Dissident Shareholders in Factor Therapeutics dealt blow by Takeovers Panel
Pura Vida Energy and Freshero have requested a meeting of Factor Therapeutics shareholders in order to change the board. Four days after their request the Factor Therapeutics Board approved a share placement which Pura Vida contested, arguing that shareholders who did not have the opportunity to participate in the capital rising would suffer a signification dilution of their voting power. The Takeovers Panel has declined to take further action on the basis that Pura failed to provide a sufficient body of material to justify it making further enquiries.
The activists are looking to remove Chair Cherrell Hirst and directors Tim Hughes and John Michailidis. They have advanced Bruce Lane and David Sanders for election to the board.
Global Energy fails at board spill of Empire
Empire Energy Group investors have rejected all four Board nominees proposed by dissident shareholder Global Energy and Resources Development, while also removing Lin Tang, the board director nominated by Global Energy and previously appointed to the board. Global Energy, Empire’s second largest shareholder, requisitioned a meeting of shareholders in December 2018. Empire said it trusts Global Energy will respect the vote that supports the current board and its strategy for value creation. Empire also announced the addition of John Warburton, as a non-executive director.
Flinders way of delisting found unacceptable
The proposals by the Board of Flinders Mines to delist the company have been blocked by the Australian Takeovers Panel, which found the circumstances under which Flinders intends to delist unacceptable.
Two shareholders, OCJ and Brendon Dunstan, objected to Flinders’ proposal to delist via an on-market buyback using a loan funded from Tio NZ. They claimed it would enable Tio to gain more control over the voting shares of Flinders.
The Panel will consider final orders under which the delisting could proceed subject to the ASX’s approval.
Activists seek to remove chairman from Centennial board
Centennial Mining received a notice by shareholders requisitioning a meeting to remove the executive chairman from the board.
Centennial said that shareholders, with up to 5% of its shares, have proposed removing executive chairman Dale Rogers from the board. The company is assessing the validity of the requisition and will update investors in due course.
Crusader Resources board change
Crusader Resources have announced the appointment of Stephen Copulous, as non-executive chairman and Andrew Richards as executive director to replace Chairman Andrew Vickerman and director Marcus Engelbrecht. The decision follows the company securing $2.5 million funding arrangement with Copulos Group, a 4.5% shareholder, and takes effect from 1 March 2019.
Parkwise Corporation, had already requisitioned a meeting to remove Vickerman and Engelbrecht and replace them with their nominees Brett Clark, David Sanders and Carl Luttig. The Crusader board had unanimously concluded that shareholders should vote against the Parkwise resolutions.
Crusader plans to delist from the London AIM market and relist on the ASX.
Hardey Resources in talks with investor
Hardey Resources has confirmed it did not disclose receipt of a requisition notice early in February, because it believed it to be invalid. However, it has acknowledged that it is now talking with some of the proponents of the notice with the aim of making them reconsider their call for a General Meeting.
Bullseye directors targeted again
Bullseye Mining shareholder, Hongkong Xinhe Investment, has requested the firm call a special meeting for the replacement of all incumbent directors with two new board members.
Hongkong Xinhe is looking to appoint Yiyang Qui and Mingyan Wang to the Board as replacements for Peter Joseph Burns, Peter Gerard Burns, and Dariena Mullan. Yiyang had been removed from the board at a shareholder meeting called as recently as September 2018. At this meeting Bullseye shareholders voted down dissident director Qiyuan Wu and his Fountain Enterprises’ attempt to remove Peter Joseph Burns, Peter Gerard Burns, and Dariena Mullan and replace them with two new directors.
Bullseye has said it will call a meeting in due course and has recommended that shareholders reject Hongkong Xinhe’s slate of directors.
Activists win board change at Sequoia Financial
Kevin Pattison has been elected to the Board of Sequoia Financial Group at a meeting requisitioned by activist, Cojones Pty Ltd (Anthony Jones) for 5 February 2019. The activists had also sought to replace Managing Director and CEO Scott Beeton, however, Mr. Beeton resigned from the company the day before the meeting.
Sequoia Executive Chairman, Garry Crole will take on the role of CEO in an interim capacity.