Activist shareholders in John Menzies now own over 27per cent of its shares. Kabouter Management, a Chicago-based private equity investor, yesterday notified the market that its stake had crossed the 12 per cent mark. Kabouter first appeared last May with a nine per cent holding, the day after Swiss investment fund Lakestreet Capital Partners declared a 3.3per cent stake. Both companies called for the break-up of Menzies, and they were joined earlier this week by Shareholder Value Management, a Frankfurt-based activist. Lakestreet has over the past 14 months taken its holding to 8.56per cent while SVM, which is acting independently, has seven percent, taking the total held by activists to 27.56per cent. SVM also called for the early appointment of an independent chairman to replace Dermot Jenkinson, a 30-year board member with a link to the Menzies family which still owns almost 20 per cent.
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