Novavest: Extraordinary General Meeting in January
The Novavest Board of Directors announces the date for the Extraordinary General Meeting and raises accusations against the shareholder "MV Immoxtra Schweiz Fonds", at whose instigation the meeting must be convened.
The Board of Directors of Novavest has set the date for the Extraordinary General Meeting. The real estate company's shareholders will meet on January 17 to vote on several motions proposed by major shareholder MV Immoxtra Schweiz Fonds. The vehicle, which held a capital and voting share of 15.24% at the time the proposal was submitted, had requested that the AGM be convened in order to replace three members of the Board of Directors with its own candidates. In addition, MV Immoxtra is demanding an amendment to Novavest's Articles of Association regarding the capital band, thereby seeking to limit the possibility of future capital increases.
The current Board of Directors unanimously recommends that shareholders reject all proposals and speaks of a "cold takeover of control" by a minority shareholder. In a detailed statement Novavest's VR not only defends itself again against criticism of MV Invest, but goes on the offensive itself. One of the accusations against MV Immoxtra is that the fund traded Novavest shares on a large scale in the first half of the year, writes the Board of Directors, and in doing so "directly influenced the price of Novavest shares, the performance of which it criticizes as justification for convening an extraordinary general meeting". In addition, the Board of Directors of MV Immoxtra violated its obligation to its own investors to act exclusively as a passive fund. Finally, the Novavest Board of Directors also questions the suitability of the proposed Board members. In the case of Roland Vögele, for example, there would be conflicts of interest between his roles as CEO of MV Invest AG and the potential additional board mandate at Novavest, and in the case of Cyrill Schneuwly it is pointed out that he is a member of the board of directors of a "competitor company that is also strategically focused on residential real estate and listed on the stock exchange". This probably refers to Peach Property, which specializes primarily in German residential real estate. (aw)
