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TEXT OF LETTER TO LAZARD WORLD TRUST FUND
TEXT OF LETTER TO LAZARD WORLD TRUST FUND.
About this update from City Of London Investment Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 7903X City of London Investment Group PLC 14 August 2018 \n\nCITY OF LONDON INVESTMENT GROUP PLC\n \nTEXT OF LETTER TO LAZARD WORLD TRUST FUND \n \n \n(LONDON, 14 August, 2018) - City of London Investment Management has sent the following letter to the Directors of Lazard World Trust Fund (LSE: WTR) explaining its intention to oppose renewing the Company's buyback authority at the EGM to be held on 30 August, 2018.\n \n \nDear Directors,\n \nLazard World Trust Fund (the \"Company\" or \"WTR\" )\n \nCity of London Investment Management Company Limited (\"CLIM\") will oppose renewing the buyback authority at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be held on 30 August, 2018. CLIM's clients are interested in 8,165,214 shares in the Company (24.5% of issued shares, excluding shares held in treasury) as at 14 August, 2018. \n \nCLIM is surprised that the EGM is being held only 3 weeks before the previously convened Annual General Meeting (AGM) which we had understood is being held one month later than usual to avoid the summer holiday season. The EGM is an additional and unnecessary cost to shareholders. The purpose of this open letter is to explain why CLIM will oppose renewing WTR's authority to make market purchases of its own shares at the EGM.\n \nIn May 2010, in connection with the placing of shares in what was then known as the World Trust Fund by RIT Capital Partners Limited, the board set out a discount management policy which undertook to\n \n1. take an active approach to managing the discount;\n2. buy back shares in the event that the discount exceeded 10%; and \n3. offer up to a 15% tender at a 5% discount to NAV in the event that the average discount exceeded 10% over the 90 days preceding WTR's financial year end.\n \nThese measures worked reasonably well for a time but from around March 2013 the board's appetite for discount control waned. In 2014 the tender policy was abandoned. In 2015, although WTR consistently traded wider than a 10% discount, no shares were bought back. The Company subsequently purchased 41,000 shares in March 2016 and in September 2016 offered shareholders a modest 10%...