Home REIT shareholders aren’t holding their breath for more answers
Many of Home REIT’s shareholders, tenants and adversaries hoped the appointment of a new investment adviser last week would signal an end to the obfuscation of the past seven months.
AEW, a recognisable and seemingly safe pair of hands, gave some reasonable hope it would be straight talking from then on. No such luck.
Yesterday’s initial findings of the much awaited wrongdoing report marked a complete 360 on Home REIT’s previous statements to the market and somehow left an exasperated investor base scratching their heads with yet more questions.
Home REIT in many cases confirmed what short sellers said seven months ago. The board pointed the finger at its now sacked investment adviser Alvarium for providing inaccurate information on the state of its rent collection and its environmental, social and governance credentials.
Home REIT said Alvarium had also failed to pass information on certain deals struck between its tenants and developers over rent collection. But that explanation has done little to quell the anger.
“Now, the company has effectively confirmed all of these issues and the board is blaming the investment manager for ‘lack of transparency’,” shareholder Boatman Capital told City PM “Given that it is the directors’ job to know how their company is being run, they don’t get to wash their hands of responsibility.”
Boatman added that the statement by Home REIT was “confirmation by the board of their own incompetence” and it was “time for these directors to be replaced”.
Law firm Harcus Parker, which is acting on behalf of shareholders on the grounds they were misled, said the “information disclosed by and on behalf of the company misrepresented how it was operating its business”.
And from RM Funds, a shareholder which had also been vying to take over the management of the firm’s investment portfolio, there was a plea:
“We welcome greater levels of transparency and this is obviously a start.
“I think we’d really encourage the board to look at addressing the other points, whether that’s valuations, annual accounts, and visibility on a recommencement of trading,” the firm said.
Worn out shareholders now, more than anything, just want clarity on when they will be able to trade their shares again. But given the sporadic and chaotic communication of the board so far, they don’t seem to be holding their breath.