An action to remove company founder Joey Lim and interim CEO Ben Lim from the board of Donaco International Limited comes just days after the primary shareholder in question completed the acquisition of a 5% stake.
Three shareholders – namely Spenceley Management Pty Ltd as trustee for Spenceley Family Trust; Spenceley Management Pty Ltd as trustee for Spenceley Family Superannuation; and Antonia Caroline Collopy – filed a formal request on Monday for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider the removal of the Lim brothers, the grandsons of Genting Group founder Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong.
The Spenceley in question, James Spenceley, is the founder of Australia’s fourth biggest telecommunications company Vocus Communications and also happens to be Chairman of another Australian-listed Southeast Asian casino operator, Silver Heritage Group. Spenceley was appointed to the Silver Heritage board in May 2018.
In an ASX filing on Tuesday, it was revealed that Spenceley had acquired his entire 38,545,341 shareholding in Donaco via 109 separate transactions between 4 February 2019 and 24 May 2019.
His alliance with Antonia Caroline Collopy, who holds exactly 3 million shares, bring their combined shareholding to 5.04%. Under ASX rules, companies must call a meeting to vote on any resolution requested by shareholders representing 5% or more of a company.
Lim, whose 27.25% stake in Donaco was seized by Asian investment firm Orchard Capital Partners (OCP) late last year after defaulting on a loan, was terminated from his previous role as Donaco’s Managing Director and CEO in March following a leave of absence to deal with “health and personal matters.”
