War of words at Gabelli Value Plus+
As shareholders in Gabelli Value Plus+ prepare to vote on whether they want the fund to continue. CG Asset Management Ltd, a shareholder in the company, has written to shareholders in GVP to set out its voting intentions in relation to the continuation vote which is to be proposed at the forthcoming annual general meeting. You can read the full text of that letter here. The gist is that CGAM is voting its 3.1% shareholding against continuation and stating that “it would be problematic if the company continued due to the vote of an affiliated party of the investment manager.
The directors of the trust are asking shareholders to vote against continuation. The vote came about after the second largest shareholder, Investec, wrote to the company and requested it. QuotedData’s James Carthew was quoted in an article about it.
The manager wrote to shareholders on 1 July. The full text of that letter is here. we though that the interesting bits were “We understand that Associated Capital (the largest shareholder) would be favorable to a 5% payout, paid semi-annually. In addition, they would vote in favor of a reset of fees to 0.85% based on net asset value versus a percentage of fees based on market capitalization. If the fund were trading at a 10% or greater discount from net asset value, AC would support a buyback program and participate pari passu on any repurchases.”
and “As further background, Associated Capital owns 27.4% of outstanding GVP shares and Mario Gabelli, Chairman of GAMCO, owns 0.5%. Investec Wealth during these last several months has been an expressed seller, as evidenced by public filings. A US-based activist fund, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, 1607 Capital Partners, has been an aggressive buyer and has allegedly been
communicating with Investec.”
GVP : War of words at Gabelli Value Plus+