Advice licensee Sequoia has revealed the outcome of its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) where a group of shareholders sought to oust chief executive Garry Crole.
An EGM was held on 5 June seeking to remove Crole and director Kevin Pattison, and to appoint Peter Brook and Brent Jones as replacement directors.
Jones has been the firm’s head of professional services since December 2017. He previously spent 15 years as managing director of InterPrac which was acquired by Sequoia in 2017. Brook has been the chair of Diverger – which was recently acquired by Count – since December 2021, having previously been chair of Xplore Wealth in 2019.
The meeting had been delayed by one day earlier this week at the request of the Takeovers Panel.
In an ASX statement following the meeting, Sequoia said none of the resolutions were passed.
The four votes were all defeated in a majority of between 62 per cent and 64 per cent. The vote to remove Crole as chief executive was defeated by 64.1 per cent.
There had been a question in the run-up to the meeting regarding a portion of shares which had been acquired by the relevant shareholders very close to the call for the EGM. As a result, Sequoia made an application to the Takeovers Panel alleging unethical practices.
The relevant shares relate to 7,448,378 Sequoia shares (5.6 per cent of the share capital) that were acquired after 31 March 2024 by or on behalf of Glennon Capital Pty, Glennon Small Companies, Cojones Pty or Vonetta Pty.
These alleged the relevant shareholders failed to fully disclose the identity of those who were associated with them, the nature of their association and the extent of their collective voting power in Sequoia. It also alleged they purchased additional Sequoia shares, resulting in increases in collective voting power above 20 per cent in Sequoia, under section 606 of the Corporations Act.
As the panel was still considering this application, this meant it was then unclear whether these shares would be counted within the vote and a further general meeting may have been required, but the firm said the vote results disregarded the need to include the relevant shares.
“In accordance with the undertakings made to the Takeovers Panel announced on 3 June 2024 by the various parties, Sequoia disregarded the exercise of voting rights attached to a total of 7,448,378 shares (referred to as the ‘relevant shares’ in the undertakings).
“None of the resolutions would have been passed even if the 7,448,378 disregarded votes had been included in the polling of shareholders.
“Sequoia therefore believes that it is not required to hold a further general meeting under the terms of its undertakings to the panel.”
