Engineering firm Cosalt will remain publicly listed after chairman David Ross’s proposal to take it private was narrowly defeated yesterday.
Mr Ross needed 75% of shareholders to back his plans at an extraordinary meeting, but he came up less than two points short.
The group’s shares jumped by more than 50% after the meeting, before closing up 44.4% at 1.3p.
Cosalt, which employs 250 people at its Aberdeen-based offshore division, said that it would now consider its options and what it needed to do to continue operating as a listed entity.
Mr Ross has said previously that continuing a public listing costs Cosalt £500,000 a year and maintained yesterday that he still believed it would be stronger as a private business without those additional costs.
He said: “Given the current position of the business, the board and I believe that the company would be better off as a private enterprise without the associated high costs of being a listed company.
“However, the decision from today’s general meeting means the company will continue to be listed and as a board we will plan accordingly.”
Cosalt also revealed yesterday that its debt was now more than £18million, adding that it needed further funding to meet working-capital requirements in the short term.
The result of the EGM was hailed as a victory by a group of more than 200 small shareholders who were against Mr Ross’s proposal.
The investors said they would vote against the chairman’s plans to delist Cosalt after his 0.2p-a-share offer for the company was made unconditional when he gained control of more than half the shares.
A spokesman for the shareholders group said that he was delighted with the outcome.
He added: “We have achieved what we set out to achieve, which is great news.
“We just hope this will help settle the environment around Cosalt, because it must be horrendous for the employees working under this cloud for the past three or four months.
“They have done a remarkable job keeping things going.
“We now want to support the company and see it start to make progress.”
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