Blues Saga: Rogue directors seek to oust receivers in legal challenge
RECEIVERS acting for the parent company of Birmingham City FC have received a legal challenge to their authority from rogue directors looking to wrench back control of the business.
In a fresh update to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Ernst & Young receivers now administering the board of Birmingham International Holdings said they had been issued with summons’ challenging their legal authority to act for the company.
The challenge has been mounted by the rogue directors who sought to excerpt influence through an extraordinary general meeting last week.
The rogue directors are thought to be acting to protect the interests of Carson Yeung, who is unwilling to relinquish control of the business despite serving a six-year prison sentence for money laundering.
The receivers have already ruled the attempt invalid and have warned that any attempt to remove them from the board is against the best interests of the business and could prompt the Football League to take sanctions against the Championship side – even its possible exclusion from the league.
The receivers said that at a board meeting on Friday they had been served with summons’ which called for their removal as directors and the appointments be declared void.
It further calls for the receivership order to be discharged or alternatively, that the receivers’ powers to remove directors are scrapped and their powers restricted to conducting investigations into the company’s affairs. It said all other powers should be handed back to the directors originally appointed by shareholders.
The summons has been fixed to be heard on April 1, 2015.
“The receivers are now seeking legal advice regarding the summons and are taking all necessary and reasonable steps to dismiss the summons. The receivers will take all steps as they consider appropriate to preserve the value and protect the interests of the company and the shareholders as a whole,” they said.
They said further information would be released when available.
