INM seeking extraordinary general meeting to remove six directors - UPDATE

18th Feb 2013 10:05

The Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and three independent directors have resigned from APN News & Media, the company in which Independent News & Media (INM) has a 28.95% shareholding.A statement issued by INM showed that Peter Hunt, Brett Chenoweth, Melinda Conrad, John Harvey and John Maasland had resigned. The announcement was issued just hours after INM released a statement stating its intention to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting with the purpose of asking shareholders to consider resolutions to remove six directors. In INM's more recent update, it stated that the five outgoing directors' departures would take place on February 19th as of 9am.In addition, the group announced that Kevin Luscombe, an existing director would retire in April as previously planned.INM stated that the board of directors had met yesterday to determine whether APN would undertake a renounceable pro-rata capital raising as disclosed to the market on February 15th 2013. The proposal was to launch the capital raising with Macquarie Capital as the sole underwriter, at the time of the full year results announcement. Preparation for the capital raising had been supported by all Directors and had been under discussion for several months although the timing and final decision to proceed had not been agreed. The INM update stated that while the board had agreed the company needed to reduce its debt, it was unable to agree on the methodology. "The departing directors believed that a capital raising should be undertaken at the time the company announces its full year results. This would have been in conjunction with a continued focus on repositioning the publishing businesses and potential asset sales. Other directors believe that consideration of an equity raising should be undertaken in a time frame that allowed other options to be pursued." INM and its major shareholder together with Allan Gray, representing approximately 51% of APN's shares, have unequivocally indicated they are opposed to a capital raising at the present time. The company stated that it is in the process of appointing a search firm to assist in the selection of a Chief Executive Officer and additional board members. INM publishes newspapers in Ireland, Northern Ireland and South Africa. APN has a portfolio of media asserts across Australia and New Zealand.INM's share price was unchanged at 0.03 euros at 11:12 on Monday.MF