Tinkler fires off new complaint ahead of key Stobart vote
The former boss of Stobart, Andrew Tinkler, has fired another shot in his ongoing row with the company's current board, claiming they transferred shares to a trustee in order to swing a shareholder vote.
Writing to Stobart's shareholders on Friday, Mr Tinkler pointed to disclosures by the company over the past two weeks showing it transferred more than 7 million shares from treasury to the trustee of its employee benefit trust, equal to just over 2pc of the voting rights.
The transaction comes ahead of next Friday's annual general meeting and a crunch vote on the future of chairman Iain Ferguson at the company.
Mr Tinkler warned over what Stobart's share transfer would mean for the upcoming vote: "There was no requirement for any such transfers to be made, certainly not on that scale, and shareholders are entitled to ask whether the transfers were made with a view to the trustee voting in favour of Mr Ferguson’s re-election at the AGM, and diluting all other shareholders’ voting rights in the process."
He said his lawyers were writing to the trustee "urging him not to cast the votes attaching to any of the shares held in the trust, since that would very clearly be inappropriate in the current circumstances".
Stobart Group
Mr Tinkler, who up until May 2017 was Stobart's chief executive, has been vocal in his opposition to Mr Ferguson remaining with Stobart, saying a change of chairman is needed to "ensure the company sticks to the agreed company strategy".
His proposal, to bring in billionaire retailer Philip Day to replace Mr Ferguson, has received support from a number of investors, including Stobart's second-largest shareholder with a 20pc stake, Woodford Investment Management, the company set up by star fund manager Neil Woodford. However, shareholder advisory groups Glass Lewis and ISS, and smaller shareholder Royal London Asset Management have come out in favour of Mr Ferguson.
Earlier this month, Mr Woodford defended Mr Tinkler, amid allegations of wrongdoing made by Stobart against Mr Tinkler, saying it was his "creative and entrepreneurial leadership that has delivered shareholder value for Stobart Group".
"He is an unconventional, straight talking, honourable man," he said, in response to accusations that Mr Tinkler had been "subverting the company in his own interests” while demonstrating a “flagrant disregard for fiduciary duties”, allegations he denies.
Mr Tinkler on Friday said Mr Ferguson's "willingness to use all the resources of the company against me, without any apparent regard for the cost or the harm done to the company and its relationships with its customers, suppliers and employees, makes him, in my view, clearly unfit to continue in office".
A spokesman for Stobart said: "This is a transfer of shares to meet obligations under long term employee incentive plans; as a result, the majority of these shares will be transferred to LTIP [long-term incentive plan] vesting plans. It will be up to the trustees to decide how they are voted."
