Shareholders give emphatic backing for Nanoco board in face of latest challenge
Déjà beckoned for Runcorn tech firm, Nanoco, today (December 13), but, once again, it saw off a challenge to its board structure and retained the backing of its shareholders.
The Manchester University spin-out had to stage a General Meeting today following an October requisition from shareholders with a 5.6% stake in the group calling for the appointment of Rhys Summerton and André Tonkin to its board.
Mr Summerton is a director of Milkwood, and Mr Tonkin an employee.
In August last year Nanoco defeated a previous attempt to reconfigure the board when more than 80% of its shareholders backed it in a General Meeting requisitioned by Tariq Hamoodi.
He had called on senior management to step down, claiming the company gave misleading information on settlement prospects in its successful $150m litigation with Samsung.
Twelve resolutions were put forward by Hamoodi, and were comprehensively voted down.
This latest episode resulted in both resolutions failing emphatically.
The resolution to appoint Summerton fell by a margin of five per cent to 95%, and the resolution to appoint Tonkin failed by a 2.3% to 97.7% margin.
The Nanoco board had urged shareholders to vote against the resolutions and following today’s meeting it said it was grateful for their support.
It said it has engaged in constructive dialogue with Milkwood during the period leading up to and during the requisition and is making efforts to ensure a constructive relationship is maintained with the company’s largest shareholder in the future.
It added: “The board is very mindful of its responsibilities to all shareholders, as well as the company’s wider stakeholders.”
Christopher Richards, non-executive chairman of Nanoco, said: “I would like to thank shareholders again for voting.
“We see this support for our recommendations also as a sign of confidence in the group’s board and strategy.
“It is regrettable that this requisition has led the company to incur costs and not inconsiderable distraction.”
In October Nanoco appointed Dmitry Shashkov as CEO after previous incumbent, Brian Tenner, told the board in July he intended to step down.
Mr Richards added: “Our focus is now on supporting Dmitry, as our new CEO, in executing on our plan and, as and when appropriate, returning value to all of our shareholders, Milkwood included.
“We look forward to providing more updates as we progress.”
Nanoco develops materials used in the manufacture of monitors and TV screens and technologies for medical imaging and the early diagnosis of cancer.
