Major shareholder MS Galleon has put forward three votes for the forthcoming AGM of tiles retailer Topps Tiles (LON: TPT) through a requisition notice.
It wants to remove chairman Darren Shapland and have Lidia Wolfinger and Michael Bartusiak appointed as non-executive directors. The Topps Tiles board recommends voting against the resolutions.
MS Galleon owns 29.9% of Topps Tiles and it owns Cersanit, which is a major European tiles producer. It started building up a significant stake in May 2020 and it reached 20% that November.
Cersanit was a minor supplier to Topps Tiles – 0.5% of cost of sales in 202-21 – but it wanted to become a much more significant supplier. It also wanted board representation. The board believes that the flexibility of sourcing is important to competitiveness. No more than 10% of products are bought from a single supplier. Cersanit wants to supply 29.9% of products.
Shareholders owning 39.1% of the share capital say that they will vote against the resolutions.
Results
In the 52 weeks to 1 October 2022, revenues improved from £228m to £247.2m, costs increased but pre-tax profit improved from £15m to £15.6m. The total dividend was increased from 3.1p a share to 3.6p a share. Net cash is £16.2m.
So far this year, like-for-like sales growth is running at 3.4%. The Parkland commercial tiles brand could move into profit this year.
At 46p, down 3.8p, Topps Tiles is valued at £90.5m.
