KEY POINTS:
Disgruntled Wool Equities shareholders have extended the range of issues they will raise with the NZX over the buying and selling of technology firm Canesis.
On Wednesday, John Shirtcliff, spokesman for a group of disaffected shareholders, said a new complaint was due to be made to NZX that Wool Equities failed to get shareholder approval for buying Canesis in 2004.
Yesterday, he said the 2005-06 Wool Equities annual accounts valued Canesis at $16.3 million out of $25.7 million in consolidated assets, or 63 per cent of the total.
He said he would now be seeking the NZX's view on whether shareholder approval should have been gained for selling Canesis - regardless of the price achieved - given its significance to Wool Equities in the annual accounts.
Canesis - almost 75 per cent owned by Wool Equities - was eventually sold to AgResearch for $6.5 million.
There still needed to be a significant write-down to cover the difference between book value and the sale price, Shirtcliff suggested.
He would be asking the NZX for its view on whether the write-down amount should be disclosed to the market.
Wool Equities chairman Andy Pearce was not available for comment yesterday.
Shirtcliff's group plans to try to change the Wool Equities board at a special meeting it is hoped can be held next month.
He said the meeting may be used to raise questions about whether $5 million of proceeds from the sale of Wool Equities subsidiary Ovita should stay with Wool Equities or be returned to another subsidiary, the Wool Board Disestablishment Company, pending its restructuring as required by law.
Wool Equities has a strong sheep farmer shareholder base. Farmers received shares as part of the carve-up of assets of the Wool Board in 2003.
Earlier Shirtcliff complaints have been turned down by the NZX.
