Argosy directors accuse DNZ of 'agitating'
Argosy Management's independent directors say DNZ is wrong and is costing unitholders money.
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The independent directors of the external manager of listed Argosy Property have accused DNZ of giving unitholders inaccurate information.
Trevor Scott and Peter Brook presented a statement to the Stock Exchange today that said DNZ was wrong to claim that Grant Samuel, authors of an independent report, had failed to talk to DNZ.
According to the Mr Scott, Grant Samuel told him that the firm twice contacted DNZ to provide any further information in writing in relation to its proposal.
“DNZ declined to provide any information to Grant Samuel. This is not consistent with DNZ’s assertions in its letter to unitholders that it made ‘significant efforts’ to pursue its undeveloped merger proposal,” Mr Scott said.
The independent directors also took umbrage at DNZ’s statement that “the Argosy trustee and the directors of the manager have stated they will ignore the results of a number of unitholder resolutions if passed, clearly ignoring your wishes”.
But Messrs Scott and Brook directors acknowledged “that a number of the resolutions put forward by DNZ and some institutional unitholders will be of no effect for a number of reasons.”
One reason is that there are not sufficient grounds for the trustee to remove the manager on the basis suggested by Accident Compensation Corporation and other institutional unitholders, the directors said.
They also claimed that some of the DNZ resolutions are inconsistent with the trust deed and the Unit Trusts Act 1960.
Messrs Scott and Brook repeated their view that internalisation should proceed by paying $20 million to the owner of the management contract, OnePath.
Any other proposals should be considered after that, they said.
The two directors also claimed that DNZ is “agitating” with regulators and unitholders and has cost Argosy $300,000 to date.
Chris Hutching
Fri, 19 Aug 2011
Fri, 19 Aug 2011
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Argosy directors accuse DNZ of 'agitating'
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