Promethean Share Discussion Threads

[pdeleter] 19/6/2003 09:10

For the best scorce of info on the likely outcome
of this mis-managed company try the following link.
He feels this could be good news for the shareholders.



Thanks Paul for sharing you knowledge and expertise
with us.
Dave

[nigelsom] 19/6/2003 08:46

Contrarian view would be that this news might precipitate a break-up and that it is actually good news for long suffering shareholders.

[scrapheap] 18/6/2003 16:49

OUCH.. how much down tomorrow? Is it worth buying after the expected markdown?

[tony14] 18/6/2003 16:47

As usual bad news sneaked in after the bell ;-))

[bigbadgar] 18/6/2003 13:04

AGM firday 20th june. If McCall is voted in I can see these rising.

If not who knows, lets hope they have good news to report back.

[vpmd7afto] 17/6/2003 21:15

Yeah weird?
If Metage dont get Bill voted on the board at the AGM I dunno if they will manage to get all the support they need at any subsequent EGM for doing what ever.
You would hope that PPL would have some good news to broadcast at the AGM for their own sakes but by the sound of the Metage letter they have been running around other shareholders trying to get their support vote for the AGM. Which implies they haven't got any good news yet........I wonder how long we will have to wait?

[bigbadgar] 16/6/2003 13:03

why are these dropping so much, has been very little volume sold?

[nofixedabode] 11/6/2003 21:01

11th June 2003


Open Letter to Shareholders of PPL Therapeutics PLC


Dear Shareholder,

As a significant shareholder of PPL Therapeutics PLC ("PPL"), Metage Funds
Limited, whose investments are managed by Metage Capital Limited ("Metage"), has
put forward a motion to appoint William McCall to the board as a non-executive
director at the PPL Annual General Meeting to be held on the 20th June 2003.

In our opinion William McCall is an ideal independent candidate with extensive
experience as an active director of numerous small and medium sized companies,
both listed and unlisted. Mr McCall's previous roles include directorships of
Tilney & Co, Singer and Friedlander and the Scottish Enterprise backed Centre
for Entrepreneurial Finance. He is currently chairman of a number of venture
capital-backed businesses.

PPL announced in September 2002 that it was initiating a process to replace the
current non-executive directors. This process has been underway for over nine
months and as yet, we have not seen any candidates put forward for shareholder
approval. We had expected PPL to welcome a candidate of Mr McCall's experience.
The Chief Executive Officer, the Finance Director and the senior non-executive
director all met with Mr McCall and all gave positive feedback. As the company
is under pressure from a number of disgruntled shareholders, one might have
imagined that the current board would welcome the appointment of a new truly
independent director. What better way of demonstrating to frustrated
shareholders that the Company is being run in their interests, than appointing a
shareholder-nominated independent watchdog?

Metage has strong views on how all companies should be run and these include the
following:

* Companies should be run to maximise shareholder value
* Management should treat all shareholders fairly
* Management should be accountable to shareholders
* Management should be appropriately incentivised and rewarded
commensurately for delivering shareholder value
* The decisions of executive management should be subject to an independent
and robust review process

Metage spent considerable time working with the company's compensation advisers
to develop a suitable incentive structure for management to be proposed to
shareholders. This would have addressed all strategic options for PPL; namely a
sale, merger, liquidation or the company's continuation in its current form
through securing adequate funding from financial partnerships for its products.
The current executive share options are hopelessly out-of-the money and only
incentivise management to take excessive risk in order to have any chance of
seeing a return from them.

Given that the company is in the midst of several key negotiations to secure its
future, we are convinced that this is the right time to:

* appropriately incentivise management
* appoint an independent director with prior experience of guiding companies
through difficult transitional periods, namely Mr William McCall

Sadly, the company ignored our efforts on incentivisation and rejected our
suggestion to put Mr McCall on the board at this time.

As you will have read in the AGM Notice, the management's objection to Mr
McCall's nomination is allegedly procedural as in fact Mr McCall's name is still
on the candidate list. Metage proposed Mr McCall because the Chief Executive
and the Finance Director indicated that they could work with him. We had no
intention of foisting a director onto a hostile board.

Metage is concerned that executive management should be concentrating on the key
Bayer negotiations. They have taken time out of their busy schedules to visit
selected major shareholders to update them on the company's plans. This seems
somewhat unnecessary given that all major shareholders were given a face to face
meeting with executive management in early May at the time of the interim
results announcement and we are unaware of any new significant developments to
be discussed at this time. If such developments exist, Metage would like these
to be put firmly in the public domain.

As a result of these meetings certain shareholders are now concerned that the
Chief Executive might resign if they were to support Metage's resolution.

Nevertheless we still urge all shareholders to vote in favour of Resolution 11
to appoint Mr McCall at this time. Whilst the company has gone to excessive
lengths to defeat this motion, the matter will only be decided at the AGM vote.

Metage's motion has nothing to do with supporting or not supporting the
incumbent management, it is simply about good corporate governance. An
independent director with no axe to grind will only create a "divided board" (as
the management appear to be suggesting) if there are matters which divide the
interests of shareholders from those of management. The appointment of William
McCall will ensure that all shareholders can be confident that their interests
will be well represented. The executive management seems to have gone to
excessive lengths to attack an effort to uphold an important principle of
corporate governance.

PPL's management is now under considerable pressure to deliver results by the
end of June. If results are not forthcoming we will be calling for a
shareholder vote on the company's future. If any directors resign at that
point, the Chief Executive included, we will propose alternatives who are not
afraid to operate in a transparent fashion in the best interests of shareholders
and who may even be willing to back their decisions by owning a meaningful
number of shares in the company that they manage. In such a situation we would
ask William McCall once again to stand as an independent non-executive director.

In the meanwhile we wish the management every success in concluding the delicate
negotiations underway and look forward to reviewing a credible business plan by
the end of June. We will also urge the company to disclose publicly any private
information provided to selected shareholders.


Yours truly,

Daron Sheehan
Director

[vpmd7afto] 10/6/2003 10:35

Somethings not right. There's a 500000 trade gone through at 6p which looked like a sell but the price went up so I guess its a buy? Somebody with 30K to spend should know the difference between Roslin Institute and PPL.
VP

[morose] 10/6/2003 10:15

Vultures circling - break up of the company?
Who knows?

[vpmd7afto] 10/6/2003 09:23

dipsticks. Thats the Roslin Inst. not PPL ain't it? Surely not connected?

[vpmd7afto] 10/6/2003 09:10

Yeah whats going on? quiet for days then a big rush. They will have to announce some good news before the AGM or expect a hard time.
VP

[burbelly] 10/6/2003 09:10

might have something to do with the licence granted to the scientist who cloned dolly

[morose] 10/6/2003 09:06

Some buying today - something brewing??
May be worth a few bob investment, at least somebody thinks so judging by the trades today.

[goldrush] 31/5/2003 18:20

All

When is the AGM and have the documents gone out to shareholders.

g

[ccraig69] 31/5/2003 16:37

Before we all vote, I would like to point out that the management of this company are taking huge salaries and bonuses, have very few shares, and are running out of money, our money. I have held shares in companies that have collapsed, and its not fun, in hind site I would of loved to of got some part of my money back. Think long and hard and look at threads of previous companies that closed down even though the technology had promise. Its better to have a meal out with the money you can get back than to loose the remainder, no matter how small. I am voting against the reinstatement of all directors and for the instalment of William (Bill) McCall.

[vpmd7afto] 27/5/2003 00:55

What had you posted dimit12??????

[clem] 23/5/2003 11:16

Copyright material deleted by ADVFN on request of owner.

[vpmd7afto] 23/5/2003 09:27

The AGM vote on the Metage bloke will be a good test as to whether Paul Scott's EGM to flog the company would be successful.

[tonyleongson] 23/5/2003 09:17

look at the times on those 600k T?
they're all buys

[hereshoping] 23/5/2003 09:03

No your not Tony....im having a lurk
HH

[tonyleongson] 23/5/2003 08:50

i'm also on my own...