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Lakehouse – Corporate Governance is Not Just About Box Ticking

Post Date: April 1, 2016

The affairs of Lakehouse where major investors Slater Investments and Steve Rawlings have requisitioned an EGM to remove and replace the non-executive directors has been covered in previous blog posts. Slater has now issued some explanation for the reasons which can be read here: http://www.investegate.co.uk/slater-investments/rns/egm-statement/201604010700107965T/ The board of Lakehouse criticised the three new directors proposed on the basis that they were not independent and hence that corporate governance rules were being broken. The requisitioners say though that "Corporate governance is not just ...

Active Equity Funds Underperform – But What About Passive Funds?

Post Date: March 28, 2016

Last Monday (21/3/2016) there was a front page story in the FTfm supplement which was headlined "86% of active equity funds underperform". The article said that a study by S&P Dow Jones Indices showed that "almost every actively managed fund in Europe investing in global, emerging and US markets has failed to beat its benchmark over the past decade....". The article went on to question the value added by stockpicking fund managers at some length Now it immediately struck me that the ...

Lakehouse and Tungsten

Post Date: March 26, 2016

To follow up on my previous report on a presentation by Lakehouse directors following a requisition submitted to remove three of the non-executive directors, the company has now published a 21 page document giving their reasons why shareholders should support the board. As is customary in these battles, the board "unanimously recommends you vote against the resolutions" to remove the three new directors and appoint new ones. I said in my previous note that it was "all still a puzzle" as it ...

The Trouble with LTIPs…

Post Date: March 23, 2016

It was with some consternation that I read this announcement today from one of my investee companies, Gulf Marine Services (LSE:GMS), in which LTIP awards are granted to several...

Lakehouse – All Still a Puzzle

Post Date: March 22, 2016

I attended a presentation by Lakehouse (LAKE) last night at Mello. I was keen to learn more about this company, and why a requisition to remove directors had been made recently which is a somewhat unusual event. The public announcements and national media comments on it left a lot of questions unanswered which I hoped might be supplied. Here are some notes on the meeting. First some background. Lakehouse is an asset and energy support services group that constructs, improves, maintains and ...