Pyne Gould voters vent feelings at meeting

Unhappy Pyne Gould Corp shareholders made their feelings known at Tuesday's annual meeting in Christchurch, with about a quarter of the votes cast opposing the appointment of two directors.

The ill-feeling comes as cornerstone shareholder George Kerr mounts a "low-ball" $47.2 million takeover bid with fellow substantial investor Baker Street Capital, a California-based hedge fund.

That saw some 23 per cent of votes cast oppose the re-election of independent director Bruce Irvine, who will retire in February anyway, and 25 per cent oppose the election of John Duncan to the board.

Chairman Bryan Mogridge, who earlier this week stepped down as a director of Kerr's vehicle Torchlight Investment Group, told shareholders the takeover hadn't been formally made, and he was limited as to what he could say until the target company statement was issued.

"There has been considerable misunderstanding about the position the company has been in over the past few weeks," Mogridge said.

"This confusion has, unfortunately, been compounded by the media who seem not to understand the situation and openly criticised Mr Irvine and myself for not issuing a definitive statement about whether you should sell your shares or not."

Mogridge and Irvine issued a "don't sell" recommendation to shareholders until they received the Grant Samuel independent valuation and Pyne Gould's formal response.

Kerr and Baker Street's Australasian Equity Partners is offering 33c per share for full control of the wealth manager, and Mogridge "strongly" suggested shareholders wait for the statement as Pyne Gould's net tangible asset value is about 56c per share.

He said Pyne Gould's Perpetual Group was expected to have modest trading growth in the current year.

He defended keeping the stakes in PGG Wrightson and Heartland New Zealand, saying the company couldn't sell the shares in the takeover period.

The board's view on the Wrightson investment was to wait and see what plans new cornerstone shareholder Agria had for the company before taking a firm view, while the Heartland investment might be able to work alongside Pyne Gould's wealth management services, Mogridge said.