Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has delivered on its commitment to overhaul its board a month after a row over the disclosure of £10.6m additional fees to its fund manager.
The battery fund has appointed two experienced investment company directors, Norman Crighton and Angus Gordon Lennox, and said its current chair and senior independent director would not seek re-election at next year’s annual general meeting.
Crighton, the chair of RM Infrastructure Income (RMII) and AVI Japan Opportunity (AJOT), looks to be the most significant of the two appointees. In his role at RMII he knows RM Funds, the manager of the winding-down investment fund that as a 5% shareholder in GSF has recently launched a campaign to improve the renewable infrastructure fund’s performance.
Crighton also chaired Harmony Energy Income and oversaw the battery fund’s sale to Foresight Group earlier this year, giving him vital experience should GSF also seek a buyer as shareholders look to rerate their holdings trading on a steep 41% discount to asset value.
Also incoming is Lennox, chair of Aberforth Geared Value & Income Trust (AGVI) and a former chair of Mercantile (MRC), the £1.7bn UK mid-cap investment trust run by JP Morgan.
Both men have joined GSF as non-executive directors ahead of the departures of current non-execs Thomas Murley and Malcolm King on 16 December.
Including Simon Merriweather, the infrastructure expert who joined the board in September, three new directors have been appointed since RM Funds challenged GSF over its strategy and transparency in the summer. Activist hedge fund Saba Capital has also taken a 5% stake, applying further pressure on the company whose shares have fallen 30% in three years and which cut its dividend in July.
GSF said it would hire a fourth non-exec in the coming months and confirmed that Patrick Cox, its current chair, and senior independent director Caroline Banszky would leave following the company’s annual results next July. Both saw significant minority votes against them in the recent AGM and EGM led by RM Funds, which requisitioned the extraordinary general meeting for that purpose.
“These appointments represent further progress in our board refreshment process and strengthen the board’s skills and independence as we remain focused on value for all shareholders,” Cox said in a statement.
In July, concluding its strategic review, GSF said it would sell pre-construction projects accounting for 8% of assets to fund investment in the rest of its portfolio. Today, it said Alexa Capital, the corporate adviser it used in the review, had been engaged to help on the sales process, which includes the 22 MW / 29 MWh “Cremzow” asset in Germany.
