The defeat of all resolutions put forward by the Save our Bubs shareholder faction at Bubs Australia’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today (27 July) was a “clear vote of confidence” and “strong endorsement” of the current board and its business strategy, chair Katrina Rathie said.
Rathie said the board was delighted with the outcome and thanked shareholders, suppliers and employees for their continued loyalty and support.
“Approximately 48 per cent of our institutional and valued individual shareholders voted. This is an excellent voting turnout for Bubs that reflects well on our shareholders, demonstrating a high level of engagement and interest in the company’s future direction.
“Excluding the requisitioners’ votes, the board received resounding support and a clear mandate from more than 70 per cent of voted shares.
“With this shareholder action now behind us, we can now focus on what we set out to do: deliver on our strategic plan, grow our business with a particular focus on the US, reset China and restore shareholder value in the medium term,” Rathie said.
After the EGM, co-founder of Chemist Warehouse and supporter of the dissident Save our Bubs group, Jack Gance, raised concerns about how much the company had spent on defending the action. Gance is the second biggest shareholder of the company.
He claimed it cost $5 million, an amount Rathie dismissed as “fanciful”.
She told The Australian Financial Review, “I don’t have the precise figures. It may be in the hundreds of thousands. It was a shareholder requisition meeting and that means the company has to pay for it.”
Gance told the AFR he was not happy with how founder Kristy Carr and former executive chair were dismissed but would still support Bubs.
“Hopefully they’ll work with us, as a retailer, to maximise the sales. I’m not saying that the current board is going to destroy the company. I’m saying that I believe that the proposed new board and management team would do a better job,” Gance said.
