Welsh Industrial wind-up proposed

Welsh Industrial Investment Trust has issued a circular proposing the winding-up of the company.Shareholders owning 62.1% of the company are keen for the company to be liquidated and the cash returned to shareholders. The general meeting will be held on 1 April. The net asset value was 334.4p a share on 5 October 2009. Prior to the original suggestion that the company should be wound up the shares were languishing at a discount to NAV of well over 50%. The board points out the strong performance of the investment trust since 1973 and it says that shareholders should consider this when they are voting on the proposals. The winding-up resolution requires 75% of the votes cast to be in its favour for it to go through. Liquidators fees could be £90,000, or 6.67p a share. Once the preference shares are paid off the first cash distribution is likely to be around 200p a share. The investment trust intends to distribute its shareholdings in AIM-quoted SpaceandPeople and Plus-quoted Wheelsure to its shareholders on a pro rata basis, rather than sell them in the market. Whatever happens Welsh Industrial IT will pay a dividend by 1 April to make sure that it retains its investment trust status.