SHARES in publishing house Johnston Press fell by nine per cent yesterday after activist investor Custos Group pledged to overthrow the company’s board.
Custos, which is run by Norwegian billionaire Christen Ager-Hanssen, has built its holding in the owner of Scottish newspaper The Scotsman to almost 13 per cent from a standing start in June.
Mr Ager-Hanssen confirmed that he is seeking to oust Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield and chief financial officer David King because he believes “the company is totally mismanaged”.
“The management are taking out huge fees without actually contributing to the value of the company and the company needs to rebuild its business model,” Mr Ager-Hanssen said.
“I’d like to see real digitisation - the future is all about extracting data. Johnston Press has some great brands like The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post and The i but it’s all about how to monetise that.”
He declined to confirm reports that he is also looking to remove three of the company’s non-executive directors and nominate himself as chairman of its board.
“You will see the details when we send the papers out,” he said.
Mr Ager-Hanssen added that Custos is currently “going through all the legal formalities that we need to go through”, adding that he expects to issue a demand for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders either today or “at the latest on Monday”.
Another Activist investor, Crystal Amber, has an 18 per cent position in Johnston Press.
Johnston Press declined to comment.
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