Showdown meeting for Davenham set for New Year
THE EXTRAORDINARY meeting called for by former Hitachi Capital chief David Anthony to replace the board of beleaguered Manchester asset finance firm Davenham has been set for the New Year.
Mr Anthony, who has built a stake in the company of around 14.9%, has tabled resolutions calling for the removal of current chairman James Kerr-Muir and group managing director Paul Burke.
He is requesting that shareholders appoint himself as managing director and Gary Jennison as its new chairman. They will be voted on at the meeting, which has been set for January 11 in Manchester.
Davenham has been in run-off mode since June when advisor Hawkpoint Partners confirmed that there was not likely to be any value left in the company’s shares.
It has since stopped writing new business and is collecting in existing loans to repay lender Royal Bank of Scotland. A trading update issued by the firm last month stated that its outstanding loan portfolio has reduced to around £80m, while its debt to RBS stands at around £111m.
Davenham’s board have stated that they intend to vote down Anthony’s resolutions and have requested that other shareholders do the same. In a statement issued to the stock exchange yesterday, the firm said that shareholders representing around 34% of the company’s equity have already formally announced that they intend to vote down Mr Anthony’s proposals to replace the current board.
ACP Capital, a Guernsey-based fund which until recently was the majority shareholder in Davenham with a 29.9% stake, announced that it had sold all of its shares in the company last week.
