Weiss urges Myerson to step down from Sirius

14th Jul 2010 17:49

Weiss Asset Management has urged Bryan Myerson to step down as a director of AIM-quoted Sirius Real Estate Ltd following the criticism of him by the Takeover Panel.This comes little more than two weeks before an EGM requisitioned by Weiss to unseat two Sirius board directors, Dick Kingston and Walter Hens, and appoint Rolf Elgeti, Michael Neuburger and Eitan Milgram. Weiss owns 20.7% of Sirius, which invests in workspace in Germany. The EGM will be held on 30 July and Sirius recommends that shareholders should vote against the proposals. As well as being a director of Sirius, Switzerland-based Myerson is chairman of Principle Capital Sirius Real Estate Asset Management Ltd, which is Sirius' asset manager. He was described as a person not likely to comply with takeover panel rules following an investigation by the Takeover Panel. Myerson is banned from working on UK merger deals for the next three years after he was found guilty of breaking takeover rules when he and two other investors bought shares in Principle Capital Investment Trust (PCIT) last year.Activist investor Myerson, Brian Padgett and Daniel Posen acquired 6.7m shares in PCIT from investment fund EIM in March 2009 as part of a bid attempt. But the Panel decided Myerson and Padgett recruited Posen as a "friendly buyer" who would purchase the rest of EIM's stake in PCIT they could not buy themselves because of Rule 9 of The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. If Myerson resigned and Weiss succeeded with all of the resolutions at the EGM then its nominees would make up three of the five remaining directors.