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Guinness sets up another
round
2 September 2001, Mail on
Sunday |
NVESTMENT company Guinness Peat Group is poised to increase
the pressure on brewery and pubs group Young & Co by firing off
another open letter to shareholders demanding changes in ownership.
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Earlier this year, GPG urged the London brewer to go
private, calling on the Young family to buy back shares from investors.
Its proposal was defeated at an extraordinary general
meeting of shareholders, but GPG chief Blake Nixon plans another assault
in the run-up to its next results, due in November.
Young & Co has two types of share. One gives holders
voting rights in corporate decisions and the majority are held by the
Young family. The rest, which are traded on the stock market, do not give
voting rights.
GPG owns 25% of the company, but has only 10% of the voting rights. It
argues that the Young family should extend voting rights to more
shareholders or take the company private.
The investment company is understood to be particularly interested in
the property estate at Young & Co, which includes a swathe of pubs
across London and a prime brewery property in Wandsworth.
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