The board of van Eyk Three Pillars (VTP) has proposed to shed most of the listed investment company’s assets and return money to shareholders.
Under the proposal, VTP will return cash proceeds to its investors by selling most of its liquid shares.
The capital return will depend on the performance of VTP’s portfolio. Based on the organisation’s financial position at the end of January 2010 it would be 90 cents per share.
VTP directors estimate that the proposed capital return would amount to around 95 per cent of VTP’s gross tangible assets.
Once the capital is returned, the rest of the assets would remain with VTP and the company would still be listed.
The directors would then undertake a reverse 1-for-20 stock split and seek ways to boost the performance of VTP’s remaining assets and shed costs.
“Prior to the board’s election, VTP’s share price had significantly underperformed the S&P/ASX 300. It had also been trading at an unacceptable discount to the value of its assets for a considerable time,” VTP chairman Stuart Nisbett said.
“Your board is solely focused on providing the best result for all shareholders and consider this to be an excellent opportunity for them.”
Lonegran Edwards & Associates, an independent expert, said the proposal was fair and reasonable. Shareholders can vote on the proposal on 8 April 2010.
The decision to return capital to shareholders comes after VTP’s shareholders ousted the company’s former board in September 2009 and replaced them with executives of financial planning group Dixon Advisory.
The action saw VTP managing director Mark Thomas, VTP Management director Cameron McCullagh and independent directors David Iliffe and Andrew Grant removed with Alan Dixon, Chris Brown, Chris Duffield, Alex MacLachlan taking their vacated positions.
The new directors pledged a strategic review of the company and in October Nisbett and independent director John Vatovec joined the board to assist in the process.
