(Alliance News) - Gabelli Value Plus+ Trust PLC on Tuesday said it has engaged with over 28% of its shareholders, who voted against resolutions 6, 7, 8 and 14 at its annual general meeting held at the end of July.
Gabelli said the majority of votes cast against these resolutions were linked to shareholder Investec Wealth & Investment Ltd's letter, which was published in September and detailed a number of issues in connection with the company.
At the time, Investec requested a vote on whether the company should continue operating. In a letter to Gabelli's board, Investec said: "We were disappointed that the board had not sought enough views from the wider investor based and were dismissive of considering an early continuation vote, despite little if any justification for why this should not be offered to investors at this time."
When the trust listed in 2015, it agreed to hold a continuation vote every five years if the trust traded, on average, at a discount in excess of 10% to net asset value per share in that fifth year. The next eligible year is the current one, ending March 2020.
Instead, Gabelli is hoping to change it and propose a continuation vote every two years, starting from 2020. The trust said the new proposal will not be subject to any pre-conditions, such as the NAV discount.
Turning to resolution 14 - that a general meeting, other than an annual, may be called on not less than 14 clear days' notice - Gabelli said that its shareholders would like to have longer notice period to be able to consider "important" voting matters.
Finally, the larger number of votes cast against resolution 5 - reappointment of Christopher Mills as director - was recorded amid shareholders' concerns that Mills is "overboarded", given his number of positions held at other companies.
On Tuesday, Gabelli said it will continue to engage with shareholders and will publish an update in the 2020 annual report.
Earlier on the day, the company expressed caution entering 2020 as it performed weaker than comparative indices in the first half of its financial year.
The investment company reported NAV per share as at September 30 of 146.4 pence, up 1.2% from 144.6p a year earlier and up 6.2% from 137.9p as at the end of March.
Gabelli shares stood at 133.5p each on September 30, representing a 8.8% discount to NAV. Shares in Gabelli were untraded at 132p on Tuesday.
The company delivered a NAV total return of 6.1% over the period, while its share price total return was 9.0%. In comparison, Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 12% and Russell 3000 Value Index rose by 11%.
"This disappointing performance, compared with the two indices referred to above is due, in part, to the investment manager's value style investment bias," said Chair Peter Dicks.
Gabelli declared a dividend of 0.75p per share, up by 25% from 0.6p it paid a year ago.
Dicks added: "As we enter the year 2020, your board is conscious of the challenges and concerns which the company faces, along with the policy of investing in the US equity market through the investment manager's bottom up, value style investment philosophy."
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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