Gresham House has announced that a group of individuals have come forward with a set of proposals to put to Gresham’s shareholders as an alternative to liquidating the fund.
The group consists of Tony Dalwood (ex manager of Strategic Equity Capital), Michael Phillips (ex chief executive of Iimia – which is now Miton, Anthony Townsend (ex head of the AIC, a director of a number of trusts and ex MD of Finsbury Asset Management) and Peter Moon (the former manager of the British Airways Pension Fund). they would all go on the Board, replacing all but one of its existing members. Tony and Michael would be the executive members of the team and would head up a team of investment managers – about another four people.
They propose putting about £1m of their own money towards a fund raising of up to £20m and a minimum of £15m of new shares in Gresham House. The Company would move from the main market to AIM. It would acquire an asset manager and it and the manager would invest in “differentiated and illiquid assets”. The shares would be issued at an 11.5% discount to net asset value. The founding group would also get warrants (850,000 at 7.5p – the current share price is 283p). Existing shareholders would get warrants too – on a one for five basis.
The proposals would need to be approved by 75% of those shareholders voting.