Shareholder revolt at Intervid

By Iain Scott, ITWeb group consulting editor

Johannesburg, 02 Feb 2004

Some of Intervid`s major shareholders are calling for the removal of the company`s chairman and the appointment of their own nominees to the board.

The shareholders are the Howard Family Trust, the James Howard Family Trust and the Kate Howard Family Trust.

Intervid, a Durban-based group focusing on digital information systems, has sent shareholders a circular calling a general meeting on 23 February.

Among the resolutions to be put to shareholders at the meeting is one relating to the removal of non-executive chairman Bill Lambert.

Shareholders will also vote on the appointment of Richard Evans, George O`Reilly and Constance Howard as directors.

"There are divergent views among the directors of Intervid regarding the proposed changes to the board of directors," the group says.

It says the board intends releasing a recommendation to shareholders shortly.

Upsets

This is the latest in a series of upsets at Intervid. Last April CEO Rob le Sueur was removed from the board. Intervid cited "irreconcilable differences of opinion with the board on the future direction of the group" as the reason.

That was followed a few days later by the resignation of director Chris le Sueur and chief financial officer Keith Pitout.

Caretaker CEO Mark Taylor, subsequently appointed to the post on a permanent basis, along with independent consultancy Strategic Partners, implemented a programme which saw Intervid restructure into two businesses - technologies and regional systems integrators.

In September last year the group reported that it had incurred a net loss of R175 million for the year to end-June, worse than the previous year`s R49 million loss.

In November, two directors - James Durand and Alan Grieve - chose not to be re-elected, citing a conflict of interest arising from the fact that they are directors of RFS Holdings, Intervid`s principal loan creditor.

Intervid has for some time been in talks with RFS regarding the possible restructure of the terms and conditions of a compulsory convertible loan advanced to Intervid International.