The New South Wales Court of Appeal has ruled that AMP Life, the largest unitholder of AMP Capital China Growth Fund (AGF), will be excluded from voting its AGF units at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which will be held on 28 July.
AMP Life appealed the earlier decision made in June by the New South Wales Supreme Court stating that it was not entitled to vote the units it held in the fund.
AMP Capital Funds Management chairman, Adam Tindall, stressed that it was in the best interests of all unitholders that there was clarity on the voting position of AMP Life, given the complexity of the issue.
“As responsible entity (RE) of the AMP Capital China Growth Fund (AGF), we sought judicial advice about the voting position of the fund’s largest unitholder, AMP Life, ahead of the extraordinary general meeting in July,”
“Ultimately the Supreme Court declared that AMP Life was not entitled to vote on the resolutions at the EGM,” he said.
Following this, the Court of Appeal dismissed AMP Life’s appeal against the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We remained impartial in the matter but we respect the right of all unitholders to act in their own best interests including AMP Life,”
AMP Capital added that unitholders will be voting on two resolutions: to keep the fund in operation with some important enhancements or to wind up the fund.
“The EGM is an important event for all unitholders in the fund and I strongly encourage them to carefully consider the resolutions and exercise their right to vote,” he added.
LIM Advisors, which owns more than five per cent of the outstanding units of AGF, is seeking to wind up AGF at the EGM as it had earlier expressed concerns over the fund’s RE as, according to LIM, it had “failed to take action to reduce the fund’s problems, in particular an excessive discount relative to net asset value (NAV)”.
