A group of investors in nanotechnology firm Nanoco has called for a shareholders’ meeting to remove the firm’s entire board, after what they described as “serious corporate governance issues”.
The group, led by Tariq Hamoodi, owns around 5% of the business and aims to remove chief executive Brian Tenner, finance boss Liam Gray and chairman Christopher Richards, as well as three other board members.
They claim the board of Nanoco - which makes 10-atom-thick lights used for screens - is acting in the interest of the firm’s top shareholder, Swiss bank Lombard Odier, and former major investor Richard Griffiths, rather than shareholders as a whole. Griffiths is a City veteran, having founded stockbroker Evolution Group.
It alleges the Nanoco board made statements about a lawsuit with Samsung that suggested the company expected a “transformational” settlement several times larger than its market capitalisation at the time.
The settlement that was announced was $150 million, but $85 million of this was for the sale of Nanoco’s IP rights. After deducting legal costs, the shareholder group claims the real proceeds from the settlement itself were “virtually nil”. Shares in AIM-listed Nanoco fell 23% when the settlement was revealed.
Richards said Nanoco “emphatically” rejects the shareholder group’s claims. The firm will review the request and make a decision whether to hold a meeting “in due course”.
With a large amount of shares in Nanoco held by retail investors, the potential result of a vote on the directors’ futures, should one be held, is unclear.
He said: “We continue to emphatically reject Mr Hamoodi’s proposals to change the entirety of the board at such a key point in Nanoco’s evolution.
“The board welcomes scrutiny but his selective interpretation of the past, significant factual errors, and speculative concerns take a number of events out of context to create a misleading narrative.
“The proposed board changes are not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. Nanoco is at an exciting inflection point, with the litigation proceeds fully underpinning our organic business which has significant growth opportunities, as well as offering an attractive potential return of capital to shareholders.”
