Evans and Partners, the troubled parent company of the disgraced Dixon Advisory, has been granted its wish to be removed off the ASX.
An extraordinary general meeting held on Friday morning, voted in favour of the resolution which was presented to shareholders in September.
E&P managing director and CEO Ben Keeble said in his address to the EGM “the [E&P] board has concluded that the benefits of being listed on ASX are materially outweighed by the potential benefits of delivering the next phase of growth in an unlisted environment”.
He presented the reasons for this request in his address to the EGM, particularly highlighting the negative impact that regulatory proceedings and class action litigation have had on the share price, which was at 49 cents are share before it went into a trading halt this morning versus a peak of $2.50 when it listed in May 2018.
“[E&P’s] shares are also highly illiquid, making it challenging for new investors to join the register and for existing shareholders to realise value for their shares,” Keeble said.
“The ongoing administrative, compliance and direct costs associated with maintaining the listing of the Company’s shares on the ASX are disproportionate to the benefit obtained by remaining list.”
He estimated E&P was incurring around $2.5 million in annual direct costs due to being listed on ASX.
Non-executive chair David Evans echoed this sentiment. “The board believes that the group’s medium to long-term strategic objectives would be best pursued as an unlisted entity,” Evans said.
The second resolution passed was regarding the equal access buy-back solution, as suggested by Evans, which was contingent on the first resolution being passed.
E&P’s request to delist from Australia’s largest stock exchange was submitted shortly after One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson secured a motion that would launch an inquiry into the collapse of Dixon through the Senate Economics Committee.
Dixon Advisory entered into voluntary administration in January 2022 after escalating liabilities, such as regulatory intervention from ASIC and a class action from Shine Lawyers, meant it would become insolvent.
But despite going into voluntary administration, most clients were transferred to the parent company who were no longer liable for funding compensation through the external dispute resolution scheme, AFCA.
AFCA had ruled Dixon an advice failure, but with the company in voluntary administration, the 2700 complaints are expected to reach the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort meaning advisers would have for the misconduct despite E&P still being in operation.
