Bangkok--30 May--TTA
Over the past few days there has been a great deal of speculation in the media regarding Thoresen Thai Agencies PLC (“Thoresen Thai”) following statements made by its Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). On behalf of the minority shareholders of Thoresen Thai, we would like to clarify a number of points:
First, it is fundamentally incorrect and misleading to portray this as a “takeover”. Rather, a significant number of shareholders are extremely dissatisfied with the current management of Thoresen Thai and wish to exercise their rights to affect changes within the management and board. Dissatisfaction stems from continued and increasingly poor returns by the company, poor investment decisions by the management and continued erosion of shareholder value. Specifics will be discussed at length and in greater detail in due course. To that effect, we the shareholders have called for an Extraordinary General Meeting (“EGM”) to highlight our position and effect the changes we feel necessary. Documentation to call for the EGM was filed with Thoresen Thai on Friday, May 27, 2011.
Second, the statements made recently by Thoresen Thai’s CEO misrepresent the current situation. Discussions were focused on shareholder dissatisfaction with current management and the poor performance of the company with ideas to improve both. It is unfortunate that management responded negatively to these discussions. An EGM has been requested because Thoresen Thai management has shown very little respect or consideration of shareholder opinions.
Third, given the disparate shareholding structure of Thoresen Thai, Atlas Holdings (“Atlas”) as a shareholder is acting merely as a spokesperson for other minority shareholders. Atlas has significant experience in the shipping and shipping related industry and is expressing its rights as a shareholder, NOT, as incorrectly portrayed, a hostile takeover bid. Indeed, in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Thoresen Thai itself said there has been no appreciable change to the shareholder list, thereby highlighting there is, in fact, no hostile takeover.
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