Young's defeats investor's call to go private

Young's has beaten off an attack from one of its shareholders who was calling for the company to go private.

At its annual meeting this afternoon (July 17), chairman John Young declared a victory against Guinness Peat Group (GPG), which owns a 10 per cent voting stake.

It is the fourth time that her has faced up to a resolution from GPG to change the company's strategy.

Using a loud hailer to stress his point, Mr Young said: "For the fourth year running, shareholders have resoundingly rejected a proposal from GPG.

"I very much hope that GPG will take note of the outcome of this vote."

The resolution calling for Young's to exit the stock exchange was rejected by shareholders owning stakes totalling 92 per cent.

Among the non-family shareholders, the proposal was rejected by eight to one.

GPG had called on the company's publicly traded shares to be bought back by the Young family and the Ram Brewery Trust, which already own stakes in the business.

It claimed that Young's was underperforming, that the board had no defined strategy and that the directors were guilty of "inaction".

But Mr Young backed up the board's current strategy by revealing today that turnover, beer volumes and profits were all ahead in April, May and June.

"We continue to pursue opportunities for expanding our retail estate and anticipate further acquisitions, refurbishments and new openings during the course of the year," he said.

GPG, which holds 25.2 per cent of the A shares but only 10.06 per cent of the votes, has pledged to continue fighting for change.

It said investors should be offered £10 per voting share and £7.50 for non-voting shares, which would have valued the business at about £115m.

Last month, Mr Young said the proposed resolution appeared "to have been designed to enable GPG to sell its shareholding in Young's rather than for the long-term benefit of the company".

This year's campaign by GPG was a change from its normal call for a revision of the company's historic share structure, which does not give voting rights to some non-family investors. This had been defeated at three previous annual meetings.

Last year, Mr Young, now 79, shouted at GPG's representatives at the annual meeting using a megaphone, saying: "I don't know what to do - I've tried using microphones, I'll try using a megaphone."

The City-based investment group is headed by New Zealander Blake Nixon and is notorious for challenging businesses where it has shareholdings, which also include De Vere Group, formerly Greenalls Group.

Related stories:

Young's fights shareholder's attack (June 26, 2001)

Young's considers making joint bid for pubs (June 11, 2001)

Fourth year of double-digit growth for Young's (June 7, 2001)