CTI's Italian shareholders quietly protest
At the Cell Therapeutics shareholder meeting on June 19, Cell Therapeutics is asking its shareholders to approve a proposal that will reduce the quorum necessary to hold shareholder meetings.
As Cell Therapeutics outlines in its proxy statement, the proposal is aimed at reducing the hassle involved in getting its many shareholders based in Italy to vote their shares. In 2006, Cell Therapeutics had to cancel two meetings because not enough of its Italian shareholders voted their shares. In 2007, the company managed to hold meetings but only because it enlisted the help of Italian banks to temporarily transfer custody of Italian-held shares to a U.S. broker dealer who could then vote the shares unless shareholders said otherwise.
At this year's meeting, though, a loosely organized group of Italian shareholders will refuse to vote their shares -- out of protest.
Italian shareholders who congregate on Meteofinanza.com, an Italian Web site, are mounting a quiet revolt against Cell Therapeutics' management.
Upset partly by the tumbling value of their shares (down 85 percent over the last year), the shareholders trade laments about Cell Therapeutics' many stock offerings, the company's latest request to split its stock (which is also up for a vote on June 19), and the company's decision to issue more shares to its directors in order to compensate them for the dilution in their holdings due to the stock offerings.
A selection of the posts (in English) is available here.
One of the Italian shareholders e-mailed me and said there are 377 registered members on the board. Of those, 52 have told him they collectively own 1.7 million shares. Currently, Cell Therapeutics has about 121 million shares.
To protest, the shareholder said he and others were refusing to transfer their shares to the U.S. broker dealer. Other than that, he said, they were at a loss as to what to do.
UPDATE, 1:20 pm: In an e-mail CTI Spokesman Dan Eramian says, "CTI always encourages all shareholders to vote their positions, it's in their interests."
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