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Astaire Group

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 03/08/2010 |

Aim adviser Astaire Group says that it has received a shareholder requisition of a general meeting in order to obtain a vote on a proposal to return spare cash to shareholders.

There are three proposed resolutions. The first says that Astaire should return cash “in excess of regulatory and working capital requirements to shareholders”.

The net asset value of Astaire was £14.3m at the end of 2009 and there was still net cash of £7.81m. That cash figure is probably lower now.

The second resolution is that Astaire should sell its businesses or solicit offers for itself. The third is to remove the finance director Chris Roberts, who was reappointed finance director on 6 November 2009 having stepped down at the end of 2008 after a decade in the job.

Astaire recently said that it is not talking to any potential bidders but there could be a change in majority ownership. A number of parties are interested in either obtaining a majority stake in the holding company through a share subscription – shareholders would probably need to waive the requirement for a mandatory bid – or taking a majority stake in Astaire Securities. An update is promised in August.

All three resolutions are ordinary resolution so they require a majority of the shares voted to be in agreement in order to be passed.

Astaire does not say who has requisitioned the general meeting and a date has not been set.

Aim-quoted Evolve Capital has a 53.6% stake in Astaire but it has stepped back from management control of Astaire. At that time, Roberts stepped down from the Evolve board.

According to the Astaire website the only other large shareholders are Schroder Investment Management, with 5.7%, and Mark Brumby with 3.3%.

At 1p a share, Astaire is valued at £2.07m.

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