(Alliance News) - Activist investor Crystal Amber Fund Ltd has moved to remove directors from recent investment Allied Minds PLC, it announced Thursday.
Crystal Amber first took a stake in technology and life sciences intellectual property commercialisation firm Allied Minds in November 2018, and said since then it has engaged "extensively" with management. It now owns a 17% stake.
However, despite some "necessary and long-overdue changes", Crystal Amber still does not believe the leadership of Allied Minds is acting in the best interests of shareholders.
It blamed "excessive" headquarter costs and misaligned incentive arrangements, as well as the fact Allied Minds has not returned any cash to shareholders since 2014.
Allied Minds has made over 40 investments, Crystal Amber continued, but only made one successful exit, and only six of those holdings are deemed to have any value.
As a result, it proposes to remove Non-Executive Chair Jeffrey Rohr, Non-Executive Director Fritz Foley, as well as co-Chief Executives Michael Turner and Joseph Pignato from the board.
In their place, Crystal Amber wants Mark Lerdal and Stephen Coe to be appointed as non-executive directors. Lerdal is currently executive chair at Leaf Clean Energy Co, while Coe is a non-executive director at the same firm.
"The fund expects the proposed board will be more effective at minimising ongoing costs and maximising distributions to shareholders from the orderly realisation of Allied Minds' remaining investments," said Crystal Amber.
"The proposed removal of Allied Minds's executive directors from the board does not preclude their continued employment as executives."
Allied Minds shares were 1.1% lower at 49.12 pence each on Thursday in London, with Crystal Amber down 1.5% at 162.50p.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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Crystal Amber (CRS)