“The statements only went out last Friday. However, Mrs. Martin-Pepple has assured us we can count on her two percent, the same applies for the six percent owned by a staff group,” Benibo replied. “We also got one of the registrar‘s staff pushing our stand against the takeover and why it is not for the benefit of our shareholders in case anyone calls them.”
“Thank God for such loyal people. What about the other stock owners?”
Mrs. Olayomi picked up, “We‘ve contacted a couple in Enugu and Port-Harcourt each with two percent holdings and await feedback. There‘s some ten percent split between several Funds and almost fifty shareholders which we may not be able to do much about.”
“Keep up the pressure even on the Mutual Fund owners. Most of the initial twelve percent our rivals got must be from small holdings especially with the two-tier tender offer they‘re using. We may use that in our share repurchase. We also have to make individual calls to independent shareholders.”
“Edward, I think it will be better if you call the non-executive directors yourself. We need to work on their loyalty because this fight may boil down to a vote.” Benibo added.
“I‘ll do that as soon as possible. Who are the owners of the remaining seven percent? Is it owned by a single individual?”
“Yes, they‘re registered to some brokers so we‘re still trying to find out the actual owners.” Ogbonna bent over his papers. “We think they may be critical if it comes to a vote.”
“I agree, continue to do that. I‘m sure our rivals will be doing the same.” They nodded and he gave a tired smile before bending down to the papers strewn across his desk. “Well then, I‘ll take some time to familiarize myself with all these reports.”