Chris Nonis claims no new appointments at EGM; says he is still Mackwoods boss

Dr. Chris Nonis in a statement yesterday claimed that no new appointments had been made at the Extraordinary General Meeting of Mackwoods Securities Ltd. on Friday and he remained its Chairman.

He said that there were several attempts made by some shareholders and other interested parties of Mackwoods Securities Ltd to force three outsiders into the Board of Mackwoods Securities in a hostile move.

At a controversial EGM convened on 7 July 2016 for the purpose of appointing three new people - namely General Daya Ratnayake, the previous Army Commander, Shraepathy Attanayake, Director of Trico, and Manopriya Tittawella - to the Board of Mackwoods Securities, the resolutions could not be put to vote as the requirements under the Companies Act had not been adhered to.

As such, the EGM was terminated without any business being transacted at the meeting. Accordingly, the proposal to appoint the three to the Board of Mackwoods Securities did not materialise nor was the proposal for these appointments voted on at the EGM.

Consequently, Dr. Nonis instituted legal action in the Colombo District Court on 8 July 2016 against the three proposed board members and court proceeded to issue notice of this action to them asking them to show cause as to why the interim injunctions sought against them should not be granted.

These incidents led to speculation over the company’s chairmanship, forcing Dr. Nonis to reiterate that he was the present Chairman of Mackwoods Securities.

He added that all longstanding directors of Mackwoods Securities, including Dr. C. N. A. Nonis, S. M. A. Nonis, Lalith Fonseka and L. L. Samarasinghe, still remained on the Board. 

He stated that the objective of such unsuccessful attempts by hostile corporate raiders appeared to be to gain control of Mackwoods and strip it of its assets. Having failed in their numerous attempts to achieve this objective to take control of one of Sri Lanka’s oldest companies, these parties were now making wild and baseless allegations and were engaged in a vicious smear campaign against the company and its Chairman, he said.