Elliott renews legal bid to oust AkzoNobel paint boss

US-based hedge fund manager Elliott Advisors launched a renewed bid Friday to oust the chairman of giant Dutch paint maker AkzoNobel, which has slapped down a bitter multi-billion-euro takeover attempt.

The activist investor, which owns 9.5 percent of shares in the company behind the Dulux and Trimetal brands, said it had filed a petition with an Amsterdam court for it to order an urgent extraordinary shareholders' meeting.

A first attempt by Elliott to convene such a gathering was thrown out by the Dutch Enterprise Chamber -- a specialised division of the Amsterdam Appeals Court which rules on corporate matters -- in a preliminary ruling in late May.

Elliott wants the meeting so shareholders can try to oust AkzoNobel chairman Antony Burgmans, seen as the main obstacle to a takeover bid by Pittsburgh-based PPG to a total value of 26.9 billion euros ($30 billion).

Elliott said it has now filed papers before the Interim Relief Court, which is part of the Amsterdam District Court, to get a new ruling.

"Elliott today requested that the IRC compel AkzoNobel to provide its shareholders with a democratic forum in which AkzoNobel's management and supervisory board can be called to account," the New York-based investor said.

It added it has "irretrievably lost confidence in the ability of the current chairman and supervisory board to guide AkzoNobel in a manner which benefits all stakeholders."

It said it already called on April 10 for an extraordinary shareholders meeting "with significant shareholder support" but that AkzoNobel denied the request.

PPG dropped a third takeover bid for AkzoNobel in early June following the interim Enterprise Chamber ruling and is legally subjected to a six-month cooling off period before any new attempt.

The case is set to continue but could still take months, unlike the latest filing before the Interim Relief Court which could be a matter of weeks.

AkzoNobel has meanwhile continued to throw its support behind Burgmans.

It said Friday its management "had over 130 contacts with shareholders in June alone".

The feedback from these meetings "will form the basis of the AkzoNobel shareholder relations plan moving forward," it said in an email to AFP.

Based in Amsterdam, AkzoNobel was formed in 1994 from a merger of Dutch and Swedish firms Akzo and Nobel.

source: AFP