Countrywide boss in scrap
COUNTRYWIDE chairman Harry Hill has triggered a fierce City row by trying to oust board members from an Aim company in which he is a shareholder by sending out pre-ticked voting cards.
The activist investor, who owns 19 per cent of Sovereign Reversions, has been slammed by the firm’s board, with executive director Rupert Pearce Gourd warning the move could set a dangerous precedent.
“It is certainly not cricket. It’s really leading people all the way down the garden path,” he said. “But I still don’t think they will win.”
Hill dispatched the proxy cards – used to log votes at shareholder meetings without attending – with boxes already ticked, to simplify the process of voting in favour of his plans to oust the firm’s board and sell off its assets.
But Capita, registrar to the vote, which will be held an an extraordinary meeting on 2 September, has expressed concern the cards may confuse the firm’s giant base of private shareholders.
Capita has sought advice from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators amid fears many shareholders will attempt to change the vote on the cards, thereby rendering them “spoiled ballots” that do not count as a vote.