Dixon Advisory has won control of the board of listed investment company van Eyk Three Pillars (VTP) at an extraordinary general meeting today.
A majority of shareholders voted for the Canberra-based financial planning firm’s proposals to remove the current four-person board of the VTP and to replace it with four Dixon executives.
According to Dixon, approximately 70 per cent of shareholders voted in favour of the board changes and also gave it their approval to increase a proposed VTP share buyback from 10 per cent to up to 25 per cent.
About 120 VTP shareholders, some of whom are Dixon clients, initiated the vote, unhappy with what they say has been an underperformance by VTP against the S&P 300 benchmark of 40 and 50 per cent over the past few years.
Dixon managing directory of strategy Chris Brown told Money Management the company would now proceed with the board replacement and with the buyback to maximise the value of shareholder shares.
“Obviously the investment manager will still invest in the companies it wishes, but the board will be able to launch capital management initiatives to make sure we maximise the value of the shares for all shareholders.”
He said Dixon had recommended clients enter VTP up to about two years ago, but that “some actions and some inactions over the past 12 months have brought about the desire for change among the shareholders and us”.
Van Eyk Research managing director Mark Thomas said “59 per cent of shareholders not aligned to Dixon Advisory had voted to support the current four directors”.
“If Dixon Advisory executives were appointed directors of VTP there would be potential conflicts of interest, because (Dixon) clients represented what appeared to be about 37 per cent of the company’s shares,” Thomas said.
He hoped that “should the Dixon Advisory executives be appointed to the board, they will be cognisant of the need to represent all shareholders”.
