Emess facing boardroom coup

REBEL shareholders at lighting firm Emess plan to unseat three directors and put in four of their own supporters.

They have tabled an annual general meeting resolution to oust Raymond Davies, Albert Alhadeff and Michael Sayers and appoint former Severn Trent Water chairman John Bellak, hedge fund director David Harding and PR chief Peter Doye, deputy chairman of City of London Group, in their place.

Peter Calver, founder of the Emess Shareholder Action Group, has also been proposed for the board. He is leading the action by preference shareholders, who claim they missed out two years ago when ordinary shareholders received dividends.

The rebels also want a probe into whether paying those dividends was a breach of the firm's articles of association. Emess has £21m cash but a stock market value of just £5.7m, and it is legally unable to pay dividends after previous years of losses.

The board plans a financial shake-up to allow it to resume payments.