City round-up: Carr’s Group; Nanoco
Carr’s Group, the Cumbrian agricultural and engineering business, is once again looking for a new chief executive.
Peter Page is not seeking re-election at the group’s next annual general meeting, expected to be held in January 2024, and will step down from the board following its conclusion.
He was appointed CEO in February this year, following the departure of Hugh Pelham, who took on the role in October, 2021. He had replaced previous CEO, Tim Davies, who took on the job in August 2020.
Peter Page joined the company in November 2019, was appointed non-executive chairman in January 2020, and took on the interim role as executive chairman in October 2021, before being appointed chief executive in February 2023.
The board is initiating plans for his succession in accordance with its strategy and future leadership requirements and further announcements will be made in due course, as appropriate.
Chairman, Tim Jones, said: “We thank Peter for skilfully navigating the business through a number of difficult and challenging years, including the successful disposal of our agricultural dupplies division.
“Peter will leave the group with a strong balance sheet, an engineering division with a strong order book and a speciality agriculture division poised for long term growth when its end markets recover.”
Peter Page said: “I would like to thank all of my colleagues at Carr’s with whom I have worked over the recent years. I will support the board in the completion of key milestones before ensuring an orderly handover to my successor.”
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Nanoco
Another shareholder has fallen in behind the board of Runcorn-based tech company Nanoco in its boardroom battle with disaffected shareholder Tariq Hamoodi.
American proxy advisory services company, Glass Lewis, has declared it will vote against a bid to oust the Nanoco board at a general meeting next Monday (August 14).
The meeting has been called by Mr Hamoodi who wants senior management to step down, claiming the University of Manchester spin-out company gave misleading information relating to settlement prospects in its intellectual property litigation with Samsung, which eventually saw Nanoco receive a $150m payout from the South Korean electronics giant. Up to £40m of the payout is being returned to shareholders, with the remainder retained for future investment.
Earlier this month Institutional Shareholder Services signalled its intention to follow the Nanoco board’s call to vote against the Hamoodi call.
Nanoco is encouraging all shareholders, whether attending the August 14 meeting or not, to register their votes ahead of the August 10 proxy deadline.
The board says the changes proposed by Mr Hamoodi are not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders for the following reasons:
• Nanoco is at an exciting inflection point, with the Samsung litigation proceeds fully underpinning its transition from an R&D first mover to a leading producer of next-generation QD materials in the short term.
• The requisitionists continue to fail to present a clear, coherent and credible strategy.
• Delivering shareholder value needs an experienced and qualified board – none of the requisitionists’ nominee directors have ever served on the board of a UK public company.
• The board changes proposed by the requisitionists in effect would represent a total change of control of Nanoco with no takeover premium being paid – a backdoor takeover attempt.
• The requisitionists’ proposals will destroy the significant potential value in Nanoco’s organic business, risk turning the company into a highly speculative litigation shell, and will result in an exodus of key talent from the business, including Dr Nigel Pickett, the group’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
• Mr Hamoodi’s unfounded allegations create a false narrative that misleads Nanoco shareholders.
