Investors renew calls for board overhaul at Nanoco
Nanocoinvestors demand board review over UK company’s settlement with Samsung – with its co-founder and tech inventor in the firing line
- Investors led by Tariq Hamoodi want a general meeting to vote on removing the board
- Nanoco said it was reviewing “the content and validity” of the request for a GM
- But said the proposed board changes were not in the best interest of shareholders
Nanoco has rejected new calls from a minority shareholder to replace the entire board, arguing that doing so would be “damaging and disruptive to the company.”
The shareholder group, led by Tariq Hamoodi, who has a stake of about 5 percent in Nanoco, has called for a general meeting to vote on the impeachment of bosses, including chief executive Brian Tenner and finance chief Liam Gray.
Also in the firing line is the group’s chief technology officer, who co-founded the company and invented the quantum dot scale-up technology.
The investor group is dissatisfied with Nanoco’s settlement with Samsung earlier this year, which it said was “on terms significantly less favorable than previous statements had led shareholders to believe.”
The investor group is dissatisfied with Nanoco’s settlement with Samsung earlier this year
Nanoco filed a patent infringement lawsuit in February 2020, alleging that the South Korean tech giant used its “quantum dot” technology in its TVs without permission.
The pair were set to go to court in Texas, but agreed to settle. Samsung last month agreed to pay £123 million to Manchester-based Nanoco – well below industry estimates of around £215 million.
Hamoodi and the investor group, which had already sent two letters earlier this year, want the entire board of Nanoco to be replaced by new directors.
Nanoco said it was reviewing “the content and validity” of the requests and would make an announcement about a possible general meeting “in due course.”
However, it reiterated that the proposed board changes were not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders.
Christopher Richards, Non-Executive Chairman of Nanoco, said: ‘We continue to emphatically reject Mr. Hamoodi’s proposals to change the entire board of directors at such an important point in Nanoco’s evolution.
The council welcomes scrutiny, but its selective interpretation of the past, significant factual errors and speculative concerns take a number of events out of context to create a misleading narrative.
“Mr. Hamoodi’s proposals would be detrimental and disruptive to Nanoco’s future prospects and likely result in an exodus of key talent from the company.”
Nanoco Shares were down 3.5 percent in morning trading on Wednesday to 18.4 pence.
Since the start of the year, they’ve lost nearly 60 percent of their value and are down about 47 percent compared to 12 months ago.