Shaftesbury headed for court battle with billionaire investor
SHAFTESBURY’S largest shareholder is on course for a court showdown with the West End landlord after failing to oust its bosses at the company’s annual meeting yesterday.
A spokesman for Sammy Tak Lee, the billionaire Hong Kong property investor, said unless the company’s board addressed concerns he had raised about a £265m fundraising it carried out in 2017, he would “be left with no choice but to litigate”.
Mr Lee, who owns a 26pc stake in Shaftesbury, has been locked in a war of words with the property company’s directors for the past year, accusing them of deliberately trying to dilute his stake to prevent a possible takeover attempt in the future.
Yesterday, he voted against the reappointment of its chief executive, Brian Bickell; chairman, Jonathan Nicholls; and finance boss, Chris Ward, and their pay packages. However, the resolutions passed as virtually all of his fellow shareholders voted in favour.
Mr Lee succeeded for the second consecutive year in blocking the board’s ability to create new shares without offering them to all shareholders, as such a move required the backing of at least 75pc of investors.
A spokesman said Mr Lee “still seeks answers from the board in relation to what he sees as its improper conduct of Shaftesbury’s Dec 2017 capital raising”. He added: “Unless Mr Lee gets a satisfactory response in relation to the con- cerns he has raised with the board, he will be left with no choice but to litigate and, given the board’s unsatisfactory responses to date, at present this appears unavoidable.”
Shaftesbury, which owns most of Chinatown and Carnaby Street, declined to comment on the threat of legal action. It has previously denied the placing was an attempt to shrink Mr Lee’s holding and insisted its directors have acted properly.
In an update ahead of the meeting, the company said its tenants had defied the malaise afflicting much of the retail sector over Christmas. Mr Bickell said: “Footfall in our locations has been robust and our occupiers generally reported growth in turnover compared with the same period in 2017. In contrast to reports of subdued leisure spending nationally, our restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars were particularly busy throughout the festive period.”