Radius AGM… common sense prevails, victory for small guys!
By VoV | Radius Properties | Tuesday 29th September 2009It was a very interesting Radius AGM yesterday, with vigorous discussions on both sides and some interesting revelations coming out during the course of the meeting.
David Glenn seemed to have direct access to live share registry information because twice during the meeting he queried the sitting directors on large share transactions that had been processed that very day. It seems that approximately 1.4 million shares were issued to the vendors of a retirement village in Leigh on the Matakana Coast and registered on the day of the AGM. A representative of the vendors was present and spoke against the Trigg proposal.
And approximately 230,000 shares had been issued to Sun Living Ltd, an associate company of Radius Properties Management Ltd – the manager of Radius Properties Ltd in which we are all invested. Of course, Radius Properties Management Ltd is led by Tony Hannon and Chris Holmes, as is Sun Living Ltd.
Later in the meeting, David Glenn again queried the board about information he had just received that another share transaction had just been registered, this time in favour of another investor present at the meeting who had previously been speaking in favour of the current board and against the Trigg proposal.
Whilst probably legitimate transactions, the timing of each does raise eyebrows.
At the end of the meeting the votes were collected and then PWC, Radius’ auditors who were there to oversee the tallying of the votes, decided they were not able to count the votes on the spot, or even that night, and would take them away for counting and verification.
At the end of today the news was released – the Trigg proposal won the vote. Ivan McIntosh and Prem Maan were voted off the board and David Glenn, Samford Maier and Sherry Maier were voted on.
Congratulations must go to Colin & Delwyn Trigg for bringing this proposal, and for the quality of both the proposal and the directors they put forward. It is a brilliant victory for small investors.
Tags: David Glenn, Radius Properties Ltd, Samford Maier, Sherry Maier, Sun Living Ltd
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 7:17 am
This is indeed good news. Congratulations to the Triggs & the others for their hard work. One question are Hannon & Holmes still on the board?
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 8:14 am
@ JR: Yes, they are. The agreement with the management company gives it the right to appoint two directors, so it’s not possible to get rid of them. That’s why the Triggs needed three new directors, to give them the balance of power. It’s a really good outcome.
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 8:25 am
The share transactions sound alarming. Do we know if these are existing shares or new ones effectively diluting our interests.
Hopefully the new directors will dig into this.
Can we do the same thing with Clendon.
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 10:36 am
@ Rod Young: My understanding is that the new share issues were to fund purchases, so the increase in shares is matched by an increase in assets, meaning no dilution of our shares. And the share transfers were between investors so once again no dilution of shares. Re Clendon: I agree.
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 12:42 pm
Congratulations on the Triggs and David Glen. We have just found out that the votes at the Radius AGM were pretty close. We find this astonishing given that Radius have made huge losses with our money and have stumbled from one shambles to another.
We heard from an adviser that over 80% of Radius investors money was placed by Northplan/Vestar which is hardly surprising given Kelvin Syms was head of Vestars Investment Committee and was also a director of Point Properties which owned Radius, Clendon and Seniorcare (All now in trouble).
Financial Planners Craigs and Co, Bradley Nuttall, Macquarie and Forsyth Barr (all advisers to many ex Vestar clients) all voted for the greater transparency and accountability promoted by David Glen and Colin and Delwyn Trigg. This suggests that the reason the vote appeared so close is because Spicers and the ex Vestar advisers who are employed by Spicers still account for a large proportion of Radius Investors and had been influenced to support Holmes and Hannon.
Investors with Radius who are still with Gould Wealth or Spicers should ask their advisers why (by either voting for or not voting at all) they endorsed a company which is almost exclusively Vestar Investors money and has paid one pathetic distribution in 18 months, has demonstrated dreadful mis-management resulting in huge losses while still paying themselves astronomical fees, breached the securities commission guidelines by delaying the Annual report and then misled the investors as to its accessibility. It then called an AGM at very short notice to try and thwart the Triggs/Glen proposal acting in a wholly unethical manner.
The good news is that the number of disillusioned people who have taken their investments away from Vestar/Gould/Spicers now appear to hold the balance of voting influence and bearing in mind a lot of the failed Finance Companies in moratorium IMP, Octaviar, St Laurence, Diversified Mortgage Trust, Propertyfinance and Boston were exclusively Vestar clients or Vestar were the biggest supporters, this suggests that any future decisions that require a vote will be judged on what is best for investors and not some closed shop bulk voting to preserve the reputations of so called “highly respected” company directors. Perhaps investors will get to know exactly what is in these ” loan books” because as receivers have pointed out in their reports eg Bridgecorp, Capital and Merchant the quality of the loans was the complete opposite to what messrs Syms and Purvis told us.
While Gould Wealth/Spicers still have sufficient Vestar client’s funds under management they could influence outcomes and based on the closeness of the Radius vote it is possible that ex Vestar investors could lose out in future close votes.
Spicers have had a chance to do what is right for ex Vestar investors but have declined to do so, they are also charging adviser fees on distressed assets. You have been warned!
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 7:08 pm
Cheers to the Triggs & David Glenn. How involved are spicers in these dealings
Wednesday 30th September 2009 at 11:06 pm
Congratulations & great news on the success of the Triggs/Maiers & David Glenns proposal. Thank you very much for representing all the very unhappy investors.
And to ‘A & B’ above: what a well written comment. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Cheers.
Thursday 1st October 2009 at 8:30 am
I would like to add my thanks to David Glenn and the Triggs for a successful outcome. I am somewhat alarmed that the voting was so close given the obvious mismanagement of the Radius directors. I look forward to a more transparent governance and a better return on my investment in the future.
Thursday 1st October 2009 at 8:30 am
We would like to say ‘Thank You, Thank You’ to VoV and all of the Radius shareholders who supported our proposal for a change in Directorship of RPL. It was certainly ‘eleventh hour’ stuff and we came very close to not being heard at all. By submitting our proposal, all we wanted was for you, the shareholders to have the opportunity to have a say in YOUR company. AND YOU DID!!!! Excellent outcome – and if anyone can move our investment forward, then it’s your new Directors.
This has certainly sent a powerful message to advisors/directors etc, that we are all very closely observing our investments and those who manage them.
Sunday 4th October 2009 at 1:35 pm
Are you planning on doing the same for Clendon? If so we should prepare ASAP.
Monday 5th October 2009 at 8:50 am
Power to the people. Networking is the key to getting your power back. I will write to Simon Power this morning and will point him to this website.
Being brave and standing up is courageous and admirable. Delwyn and Colin your stand is recognised as is the committment of David Glenn.
FANTASTIC!
Tuesday 6th October 2009 at 10:09 pm
Thanks for the support of VOV and the feedback from everyone – it has certainly been an interesting time, and we didn’t realise it would be quite such a difficult road when we started with this, but the outcome was well worth the trouble!
I notice a couple of respondents have indicated that the vote was close – I can confirm that our proposal got about 8 million votes – with support for the previous Board at about 3 million votes – I call that a good old fashioned hiding! Good on you all for getting in behind it and showing that the ’small guys’ can make a difference.
Wednesday 7th October 2009 at 2:34 pm
Its amazing how Chris Holmes & Tony Hannon got involved in so many of the investments that Vestar supported. Radius – Clendon – Senior Care and maybe many more. Naturally with them involved you look for trouble. On the 11-12-08 Unit Holders in Senior Care were advised by Chris Holmes- Director of Senior Care Investment – of a Suspension of Redemptions. However under the terms of the Master Trust Deed the suspension cannot continue for more than twelve months without the Trustee’s approval (and the Trustee cannot withhold such approval without the support of a resolution of the Unit Holders). Can someone read that last paragraph very carefully and tell me what it means exactly. If it is good and in our favour we can expect the lifting of the Suspension in early December. We look forward to it.
Wednesday 7th October 2009 at 3:26 pm
@ M & L Bailey: “…the suspension cannot continue for more than twelve months without the Trustee’s approval (and the Trustee cannot withhold such approval without the support of a resolution of the Unit Holders).”
The way I read that paragraph, there must be a resolution of Unit Holders before the Trustee can withold approval for an extension of the suspension. In other words, the Trustee has to agree to an extension of the suspension unless there is a resolution of Unit Holders saying otherwise.
I suggest you ask the Trustee what’s involved in organising a resolution of Unit Holders. Keep us posted and I’ll start a new thread for Senior Care if needed.
Thursday 8th October 2009 at 1:46 pm
We have written the letter as advised by you. I have to say I was sorry about your interpretation which was what I suspected it meant.
Will just have to wait and see what they say about the problem.
Thanks for the help & advice.