Glasgow property tycoon Louis Goodman will face renewed pressure today to repay hundreds of thousands of pounds to longstanding investors who helped make him one of Scotland's richest men.
Independent shareholders in Goodman's formerly quoted City Site Estates are owed £7m in unpaid dividends on shares which City Site should have bought back four years ago at the latest but never did.
Goodman is no stranger to controversy, having taken City Site Estates private eight years ago in contentious circumstances. Back in 1999, Goodman, who acquired City Site via a family trust, fought-off a takeover bid from Edinburgh's Miller Group in circumstances which prompted complaints to the Takeover Panel.
Miller Group had indicated its willingness to pay more than the £4.37m paid by the trust, but its rival bid was rebuffed by City Site.
City Site will hold its annual meeting today in Glasgow.
A letter to the company secretary dated February 22 has been circulated in advance to private shareholders. This demands answers from City Site's board to a string of questions relating to Goodman family interests and City Site's financial affairs.
The author is Graham Smith, a Devon-based holder of the class of preference shares which is the bone of contention.
In a statement last year, Goodman stressed that under UK company law City Site is prohibited from pay- ing the arrears while it continues to have a deficit on its distributable reserves.
In the letter, Smith demands answers from the company secretary about tax losses surrendered to other group companies in the period 2001 to 2004, totalling £3.8m. He also seeks an explanation of differences in profitability between City Site and other Goodman companies, Union Estates and Woodvale Estates.
Auditor Deloitte is also asked to explain its approval of various accounting treatments, which Smith believes are not easy to understand.
Smith wrote: "As 9.30 in the morning in Glasgow is not a convenient time for flight connections within a day, I would expect few of the independent shareholders to attend (the annual meeting). With this in mind, I am sending a copy of this letter to the 32 private and eight nominee company shareholders who remained on the register at March 13, 2006.
"Could I ask that, in an act of good faith, the replies these questions elicit are mailed in return to those shareholders who cannot hear the answers at the AGM?"
City Site did not respond to a request for comment.
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