(Alliance News) -Â Civitas Social Housing PLC on Thursday hit out at a short-seller report, as it separately noted that a special resolution at its annual general meeting failed to garner sufficient shareholder support.
Civitas noted a recent letter published by an unnamed short-seller and said it was issued "without any engagement" with its board.
"It is the board's belief that the letter is based on factual inaccuracies, incorrect assumptions, erroneous comments and assertions which are not grounded in fact," Civitas said, adding it will publish a full response after reviewing the letter in detail.
On Wednesday, ShadowFall wrote a letter to Civitas - in which it claimed to hold a short position of 0.8% in the firm - alleging transparency issues over acquisitions and leases.
Civitas said the company continues to perform robustly and in line with expectations, and the board has "great confidence" in its prospects.
Separately, Civitas said resolution 13 at its annual general meeting held on Wednesday failed to receive sufficient shareholder support.
The proposal, a special resolution seeking authority to allot shares up to 10% of its issued share capital, saw 27% of votes cast against it.
As it was a special resolution, it needed support of at least three-quarters of the votes cast.
Civitas said it plans to speak to the largest shareholders who voted against the resolution and said it understands they followed the recommendation of Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd, a proxy adviser, to vote down the proposal.
It added: "As was noted in the AGM notice, the directors are aware that the combined authority to dis-apply pre-emption rights in respect of up to 20% of the company's issued ordinary share capital sought under resolutions 12 and 13 is higher than the 10% typically sought by investment companies, although other listed REITs have this year received such additional authority from their shareholders. The authority now granted under resolution 12 still permits the company in aggregate, to issue up to 10% of the number of ordinary shares in issue at the AGM at a premium to NAV."
The company respects "the wishes of certain shareholders not to increase this threshold at the present time."
Shares in Civitas were down 1.8% at 93.69 pence in London on Thursday morning.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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