Pollen Street Secured Lending board threatens legal action against investment manager
The board of Pollen Street Secured Lending (PSSL) has threatened its investment manager with legal action, if it does not produce due diligence documents needed to progress a possible takeover offer.
Alternative finance-focused fund PSSL has issued a termination notice to Pollen Street Capital (PSC) after accusing the investment manager of refusing to disclose documents to bidder Waterfall Asset Management.
PSC has questioned whether this approach is in the best interests of shareholders and said it has provided more than 2,000 documents, but PSSL said many of these are redacted and irrelevant.
PSSL argued that PSC was ensuring that the bid would not proceed.
“We are an independent board who are not conflicted by this potential offer,” it said in a stock exchange announcement on Thursday.
“It is not us who face the prospect of losing an investment management agreement, which paid out £13.9m in the year ended 31 December 2018, if the potential bid goes through.”
PSSL added that it will commence legal proceedings if documentation is not provided.
“The board is currently taking legal and other advice on its options to progress the possible offer and to ensure that the portfolio is managed in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” it said.
“If the manager continues to fail to produce the documentation and other information requested, then the board anticipates that it will need to commence legal proceedings to enforce its rights, including potentially issuing a court claim to obtain due diligence materials.”
Read more: What does the future hold for the world’s first P2P lending investment trust?
