Business
Annual General Meeting: Chairman's Presentation
Annual General Meeting: Chairman's Presentation.
About this update from Coats Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 0534I Guinness Peat Group PLC 08 June 2011 \n \n\nGUINNESS PEAT GROUP PLC\nANNOUNCEMENT\n \nAnnual General Meeting: Chairman's Presentation\nGuinness Peat Group plc (\"GPG\" or the \"Company\") announces that at its Annual General Meeting (\"AGM\") to be held in Auckland, New Zealand on 8 June 2011 at 2.15 p.m., the Chairman will make the following presentation:\n \n\"There have been a number of significant developments for GPG in the last 12 months.\nIn September 2010, an independent sub-committee of the Board was established to evaluate options to enhance value for GPG shareholders. The independent sub-committee identified a number of issues with the GPG business which they believed were preventing appropriate recognition of value in the business, including:\n· a large, complex and geographically diverse portfolio of assets, including a mix of minority shareholdings and wholly owned businesses (including Coats);\n· a lack of value transparency with a number of unlisted investments, the largest of which is Coats;\n· a number of actual and contingent liabilities, including capital notes, pension liabilities and potential payment of a European Commission fine. Some of these liabilities are subject to significant uncertainty as to the timing and quantum of liability borne by companies in the GPG group;\n· a disappointing share price in recent years and an ongoing significant gap between that price and net asset value; and\n· a governance structure which was outdated in the context of today's market best practice.\nAfter an extensive evaluation of a broad range of options by the independent sub-committee, the Board adopted the unanimous recommendation that GPG discontinue new investments and pursue a strategy of orderly realisation of investments over time.\n \nProgress on Recommended Strategy\nThe recommended strategy, which was announced in February, includes the following four key elements.\n1. Pursue an orderly realisation of investments over time and discontinue new investment (although GPG may allocate further capital to existing investments where this adds value to the overall divestment strategy)\n2. GPG to continue to evaluate alternatives for realising value f...