Baltimore shareholders to vote on company's future

SHAREHOLDERS in Baltimore Technologies meet in London today to vote on a proposal to return stg£10 million (€14m) cash to them.

The extraordinary general meeting will also vote on whether to oust the current board, headed by Bijan Khezri, and install nominees of its largest shareholder, the investment vehicle Acquisitor Holdings.

Acquisitor, which owns 26% of the company, will vote against the plan to distribute the cash, and given the size of its holding its chances of success are high.

Acquisitor said the plan to return the cash by the former dotcom star would be bad news for all shareholders and it wants to install its own management to turn the company around.

It has already had one unsuccessful attempt to boot out the board.

Having sold off all its technology units, Baltimore is now sitting on a cash pile of stg£24 million. Its plans to turn itself into a renewable energy company had to be scrapped because of opposition by Acquisitor and the decision to pay shareholders the special dividend.

Baltimore said it is committed to giving back all of its cash to shareholders and urged them not to vote with Acquisitor, which it says is trying to take control of the company without making an offer.

Acquisitor, in the increasingly bitter row with Baltimore, said the management team had squandered billions of euros in value and it would turn its fortunes around.

The cost of the spat with Acquisitor is believed to have topped stg£500,000 in legal and advisory fees. The previous EGM to unseat Mr Khezri and his team was barely defeated with the chairman being re-elected by just a 0.4% margin.

There are around 6,000 Irish shareholders in the company, which once employed 1,400 people.

Meanwhile, the pressure on Baltimore's finances will be stretched further after one of its former business partners, Earthport, said it was suing the company for stg£4.5m. Baltimore rejects the allegations.