Shareholders reject move to oust SurfStitch chairman

A PUSH from a major SurfStitch shareholder Crown Financial to remove the embattled company’s chairman Sam Weiss was overwhelming defeated at an extraordinary general meeting yesterday.

Crown Financial, led by managing director Kim Sundell, claimed Mr Weiss’ appointment had been catastrophic and he and the company’s fellow directors had failed to address ongoing issues.

The board backed Mr Weiss and earlier urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, which the majority did, with 91.78 per cent of the votes cast in favour of keeping the chairman.

Crown Financial and SurfStitch remain in a bitter legal dispute, with SurfStitch also faced with two class actions and an ASIC investigation.

Mr Weiss told the EGM he was “under no illusions” about the difficult times the company faced, but said his removal would “further destabilise the company and cannot be in the interest of the shareholder body as a whole”.

“Although the business has continued to operate at a loss, I believe the underlying SurfStitch business to be better run, leaner, more agile and more appropriately structured than the business we inherited,” he said.

“I was under no illusions about the degree of difficultly of the task ahead, nor was I when I commenced my appointment with the company.”

Mr Sundell said the result was “disappointing for sure”.

SurfStitch shares have been in a trading halt since May this year, having plummeted to 6.8c from about 22c in June last year,.

They remain well short of their 2014 listing price of $1.