This site is intended for Australian based shareholders of Biota Pharmaceuticals. Biota was an Australian based company for 20 years until it delisted from the ASX in November 2012 to list on Nasdaq through a reverse takeover of a cashbox shell company called Nabi Biopharmaceuticals.
Biota is now based in Atlanta, Georgia.
But most of Biota's shareholders are Australian, and most are small holders.
This site is to encourage those shareholders to form a network to exchange information and ideas.
Well, partly. It is also intended to allow shareholders to unite as a proxy voting block to gain better representation and influence.
Biota has a great Australian invention but a terrible corporate track record. In its move to the United States, its shareprice was ravaged by Nabi shareholders and by traders. The result is a company with a capitalisation little more than its cash in the bank. The company has ignored its shareholders, primarily because it can.
The destruction in capital wealth has occurred with the apparent co-operation of the 2 large shareholders who are represented on the Board. They have not been able or willing to reverse this shareholder wealth reduction even though it would seem to be in their interests to do so.
Further to its strategic review, the Board has changed 2 directors, and both new directors are US based executives. From all appearances, the new CEO has recruited his old Inhibitex team. Nothing that has occurred since the announcement of the move to the US has improved the situation for shareholders.
This leaves the average small Australian shareholder further distant from the aims, performance and outcomes of the company.
So, what to do. I have some form to disclose.
In 2008 following Biota's withdrawal from litigation against GSK, foregoing a 100 million prior offer of settlement, I ran as an independent for the Board in protest at the actions of the company.
In the course of that episode, the then Chairman wrote to shareholders informing them that undirected Chairman proxies would be voted in favour of my election. 3 days prior to the AGM, he announced to the ASX that he was reversing his direction to vote against me. This gave the average shareholder little chance to change their vote.
The action spoke to the qualities of the then Chairman and some members of the Board, and offered a glimpse into the kind of people running the company, and for whom it was run.
I lost : 6 million votes weren't enough.The Chairman and another Director left soon after.
In general, shareholder activism is frowned upon: it seems to be more acceptable to quietly lose to a group of strangers. And we all have day jobs. But, the situation of the Biota shareholder is a little different.
I would like to encourage you to join this group and think about contributing your shareholding to a voting block.
Where this goes depends on the response. Perhaps the best we'll do is meet now and then. Perhaps we'll hold 10% of the company.
The email address dedicated to this site is
ozbiota
Maybe we should start with examining a position on:
dual listing
the number of Board members
Regards
Michael Montalto
