Shock reversal in Acorn plans – Acorn’s board has, this morning, made the following announcement:
“Further to the Company’s announcement on 17 May 2021, where the Board of the Company announced proposals to recommend the appointment of BMO Global Asset Management to manage the Company under a new Sustainable Global Equity Income investment strategy (the “BMO Proposal”), the Board has received further interest from managers regarding the future of the Company. Despite the Board continuing to believe that the BMO Proposal is an attractive investment proposition, after careful consideration of shareholder feedback the Board has concluded that an alternative proposal to the BMO Proposal may represent a more suitable proposition for the Company’s shareholders.
Given the continued shareholder consultations and the review process of alternative proposals, the Company confirms that the Extraordinary and Annual General Meetings will not be held in August 2021 as previously expected. An announcement with further details on the future of the Company will be published as soon as practicable and expected to be no later than mid-September. Thereafter, the Company expects to publish a circular in relation to the Board’s proposals for the future of the Company, including a notice convening the Extraordinary and Annual General Meetings.”
The circular that was promised to be published in July – to convene a meeting in August to approve the BMO proposal – never materialised.
[To have gone so far down the route towards appointing a new manager and adopting a new strategy and then to pull the plans at the last minute is unprecedented in our memory. Readers may rightly question why the board did not ensure that major shareholders were onside before the planned move to BMO was announced. How much money has been spent so far?]
AIF : Shock reversal in Acorn plans