The Tansterne biomass plant developed by Solar 21 near Hull, UK
Solar 21 investors were refused a vote at a creditors’ meeting despite receiving an invitation to attend to do so.
The creditors’ meeting at Tallaght’s Plaza Hotel last week, called to appoint a liquidator to two companies linked to Solar 21’s Project 2 scheme, was so packed it was delayed by an hour and a half.
A company statement was read out blaming the insolvency on a wind-up petition taken by a group of investors.
The company then announced it had legal advice that the investors had preference shares and were not creditors with an entitlement to vote to appoint liquidators.
The company’s choice of liquidators was then appointed without a vote. Investors are expected to continue to pursue the appointment of what they regard as independent liquidators.
The investors in the EFW21 firm all received an invite to attend and two proxy forms to “allow you to vote… or for someone else to attend in your stead”.
A company spokesman noted a sentence in the correspondence that said they “may be deemed creditor of the company”.
After sending the invite, the company had sought senior counsel’s opinion and was advised preference shareholders are not creditors for the purposes of such a meeting, said the spokesman.
“It did not cancel the meeting in order to give preference shareholders the same opportunity as ordinary creditors to “ask questions of the Company, which they did.”
source