The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the largest shareholder in PPC will vote against a resolution next month to remove the entire board, the acting CE of the $126 billion state-owned fund said on Thursday.
Three shareholders with a combined 10% of the company.have requested a meeting to consider removing the entire board.
The vote of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which owns ±12% of PPC and is one of South Africa’s most influential investors, will likely be critical.
“In terms of corporate governance principles, the PIC would like to see continuity on company boards. It is within this context that the PIC does not favour the removal of an entire board,” Matshepo More told Reuters.
“They are looking at the company and they don’t feel anything untoward about the company,” PPC chairperson Bheki Sibiya said.
The board has been locked in a public row with former CEO Ketso Gordhan, who has been lobbying to return to PPC since resigning in September when the board refused to back his decision to fire an executive.
Gordhan said his exit prompted one development finance institution, which he did not name, to reconsider lending PPC $200-million for an Algerian acquisition.
PPC’s board said Gordhan’s comment about the $200 million loan was “factually unfounded and damages the image of the company”. Sibiya has said the company is taking legal action against Gordhan for being a “delinquent director”.
By: Reuters
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/ahead-of-critical-vote-south-africas-ppc-backed-by-top-shareholder-2014-11-06/rep_id:3182
