In response to a detailed statement from Alexander Anton and Geoff Wilding, who are trying to gain seats on the board at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, 3 October, and who have the backing of the Anton family and activist shareholder New Fortress Finance, which between them control 41 per cent of Victoria's share capital, ShareSoc said: "Our major concern was the alleged incentive scheme whereby non-executive directors were apparently going to receive very large benefits from any increase in the value of the company. However, it is clear from the circular issued by the concert party (and comments made by Mr Wilding at the annual meeting and directly to ShareSoc subsequently), that Mr Wilding will act as an executive director of the company; any incentive scheme devised by the new directors will be put to shareholders for approval (and will be designed to meet regulatory and corporate governance standards); and it's likely that the only beneficiary of an approved incentive plan will be executive directors or management of the company."
In an exclusive interview with Investors Chronicle, Mr Anton and Mr Wilding both confirmed that there is "no plan to sell the company" if they are voted onto the board at the forthcoming general meeting, but they were not prepared to discuss whether or not their new strategy for the company involved gearing up the balance sheet to return capital to shareholders, nor whether any management incentive scheme - which would have to be put to shareholders for approval - would significantly reward executive directors if a substantial cash return is subsequently made to shareholders. However, it is clear from their comments that the disposal of non-core and underperforming assets and the release of cash tied up in working capital by reducing stock turn could be used to enhance shareholder returns.
Ultimately, Victoria's shareholders will have to decide whether they want to support the current incumbent management team of Victoria and their outlined strategy to "continue developing the company's Australian and UK businesses through sales growth, margin enhancement and a shift towards a distribution-based business from its historic manufacturing and supply model". The alternative, as ShareSoc also points out, is to back the election of the new directors whose "strategy may be somewhat more aggressive in style in terms of restructuring of the business and disposing of underperforming assets. This is to be expected given their proposed incentive scheme which might stimulate more action". One thing is for sure, the battle for Victoria is going to the wire.
