High noon for Group Five board
Fight with major shareholder Allan Gray comes to a head tomorrow
Group Five's largest shareholder, Allan Gray, has admitted it wants the engineering and construction firm's assets to be unbundled — and its insistence on this plan has resulted in the board collapsing. Allan Gray, which holds 25% of Group Five, had repeatedly said in the past few weeks that its call for the board to quit was not over differences about strategy but that it had "lost faith" in the board at one of the oldest construction companies in the country. Allan Gray's chief investment officer, Andrew Lapping, confirmed on Friday that it had written to the board earlier this year proposing the unbundling. Board chair Philisiwe Mthethwa said the board's refusal to accept an unbundling proposal was the real reason it was being booted out. Tomorrow, five board members, led by Mthethwa, will step down at an extraordinary general meeting called by Allan Gray. Lapping said on Friday: "When shareholders lose faith in management then shareholders have a right to call a meeting and chan...
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