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Adnams rebuts investor criticism

Published:  27 April, 2009

A shareholder in Adnams has launched a campaign for the company to restructure its shares and change its strategy after disappointing profits in 2008.

A shareholder in Adnams has launched a campaign for the company to restructure its shares and change its strategy after disappointing profits in 2008.

Guinness Peat, which owns 2.5% of Adnams shares, claims there is "justified unrest among a substantial and growing proportion" of the brewer and wine merchant's shareholder base.

The investment group has written to Adnams shareholders, criticising the roll-out of Cellar & Kitchen stores and what it described as a lack of transparency over the contribution the nine shops are making to the business.

It questions the company's expansion plans in a declining beer market, and the investment in a new brewery, and says the current two-tier share structure should be abandoned so that all shares are of equal value and the Adnams family does not wield complete control.

But chairman Jonathan Adnams has responded with his own letter to shareholders, rebutting the Guinness Peat criticisms and claiming the current strategy was the correct one.

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