Investor casts net to delist Marlin

Dismayed by the 30 per cent discount to net asset value at which it is trading, a Christchurch investor in Fisher Funds Management's Marlin Global fund is seeking support from other shareholders to have the vehicle delisted.

Gary Cross has placed advertisements in national newspapers targeting Marlin investors seeking the 5 per cent support required to call a meeting to vote on his delisting proposal.

Cross says with the shares trading at 70c yesterday - a 29 per cent discount to their last reported net asset value (NAV) of 98.72c - delisting the fund to facilitate redemptions at NAV is his best prospect of realising the value of his and his fellow shareholders' investment.

Cross last week discussed his plan with Fisher Funds' Carmel Fisher but at the end of the day it was the shareholder's call.

"If the shareholders want it delisted it will be."

Most of the shareholders who had contacted him had been supportive of his plan, but he acknowledged it would be difficult to secure sufficient support to force the meeting let alone the 75 per cent of votes cast at that meeting to support the delisting plan. Cross holds 1.5 per cent.

Carmel Fisher yesterday told the Business Herald she understood Cross's concerns. The present discount to NAV was "painful".

"We are just as frustrated that in spite of Marlin's great performance - it has been the best performing international fund over the last 12 months - the share price trades significantly lower than net asset value."

However, she questioned whether shareholders in a listed investment company who typically bought and sold shares through a broker would want to change to being an investor in an open-ended sharemarket fund.

"Theoretically if they wanted to they would have invested in our International Growth Fund."

Fisher Funds' International Growth Fund has an identical portfolio to Marlin but has an open-ended structure allowing investors to buy and sell shares at net asset value.

Fisher didn't believe Cross was representative of a large number of Marlin's 4000 or so investors but respected his right to talk to the other shareholders, "and if he gets enough support we'll have to listen".

Marlin invests in small cap companies on approved markets outside of Australasia. It began operating in 2007 when it issued 103 million $1 shares.