Activist shareholder Crystal Amber had called for Loosemore to resign immediately due to the performance of the security printing group.
At the meeting held on Friday afternoon (2 December), shareholders representing 77.7% of De La Rue’s issues share capital voted.
The result was 82.9% (125,880,167 votes) in favour of Loosemore’s continuation as a director and chairman, with 17.1% against.
165,804 votes were withheld.
De La Rue stated: “The board is pleased that the resolution was passed at today's general meeting and welcomes the overwhelming support of the company's shareholders for the resolution proposed.”
The PLC said: “Excluding the votes cast by Crystal Amber, 94.9% of the votes cast were in favour of Mr Loosemore continuing to serve as a director of the company and as chairman of the board.”
Since Crystal Amber embarked upon its offensive, De La Rue has issued its third profit warning this year, along with a going concern qualification from auditor EY.
De La Rue CEO subsequently Clive Vacher told the Financial Times that the board and management team disagreed with EY’s assessment.
In response to the outcome of the vote, Crystal Amber issued a statement that said: “Since the publication of De La Rue's interim results on 23 November 2022, Crystal Amber has held discussions with a number of De La Rue's institutional shareholders. Despite obvious dissatisfaction arising from the latest profit warning, Crystal Amber understands that as a result of the material uncertainty going concern audit opinion, there is some concern that removing Mr Loosemore at this time might result in further instability.
“However, as De La Rue convened the shareholder meeting following private correspondence between Crystal Amber and the chairman, Crystal Amber believes that De La Rue is responsible for creating public instability.”
Crystal Amber said it remained of the view that Loosemore's “actions and ability are an impediment to the release and return of shareholder value”.
“This is evidenced by strategic errors, a share price 30% below the level of July 2020 at which £100m of rescue equity finance was provided, three profit warnings and the material uncertainty going concern audit qualification.”
Crystal Amber has called for De La Rue to “participate in industry consolidation without delay”, which would likely involve the business being sold or broken up.
De La Rue’s share price has lost 20.49% of its value over the past month.
