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Athelney Trust Says Former Chair Emmanuel Pohl Trying To Seize Control

Wed, 20th Mar 2019 16:09

LONDON (Alliance News) - Athelney Trust PLC on Wednesday said its former chair is attempting to take over the board and urged shareholders not to approve his re-election.

Shares in Athelney Trust were down 4.1% at 235.00 pence on Wednesday afternoon.

The small-cap stock investor received a requisition from major shareholder and former chair Emmanuel Pohl, who it says is trying to "take control of the board".

This requires that resolutions to return Pohl and fellow ex-chair Simon Moore to the board, as well as to remove Non-Executive Director David Lawman, be considered at Athelney's annual general meeting on April 3.

Pohl and Moore were removed at the company's extraordinary meeting on January 22.

"Your board considers this would not be in the best interest of all shareholders and would return the company to a failed formula. If you are a shareholder please vote for your current board," Athelney said.

The trust also decided to inform its shareholders that a large number of its shares have been traded since March 5, with more than 100,000 of these acquired by Pohl. Consequently, Athelney now fails section 1158 of the Corporation Tax Act as it is "deemed under the control of five or fewer participators".

Athelney said that Pohl has created a "threat to the company's status as an approved investment trust, exempt from corporation tax". The trust said that, as former chair and managing director of Athelney, Pohl "may have been aware" of this regulation.

However, Athelney has taken tax legal advice and confirms that its tax exempt status remains intact. Nonetheless, if a major shareholder becomes a director then Athelney is at risk of further breaching regulations as that director's shares are no longer considered public.

Regarding Pohl's resolutions, Athelney said: "The board believes the actions of major shareholder blocks in the past six months have led directly to substantial additional costs and this must stop if the company is to have a viable future"

Athelney noted that of the GBP90,000 extra costs incurred during the shareholder dispute, a little under GBP70,000 had been spend and committed by Moore and Pohl in the three months leading up to January 22.

The company also said that Pohl's resolutions would return Athelney to its previous management team "who failed to foresee and prevent the circumstances that led to heavy cost and uncertainty for all other shareholders".

Moreover, Athelney said the resolutions are not a solution to the trust's problems but instead "encourage another swing of the pendulum, exacerbated by the absence of independent voices on the board and a return to yesterday's team."

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