Unitholders again say 'no' to winding up AIMS Property Securities Fund, in second vote in four days

BOUTIQUE Australian investor Samuel Terry Asset Management has lost another attempt to have AIMS Property Securities Fund wound up, according to a unitholder vote that it called in Sydney on Monday.

The motion to wind up the dual-listed fund was defeated by an eight-point margin - wider than the six-point gap in a similar vote on Dec 7 - with votes representing 43.42 per cent of securities saying "no".

Entities related to the fund manager together have a 36.72 per cent deemed interest. While AIMS Capital Management divested its 19.9 per cent stake on Dec 5, parent AIMS Investment Group Holdings has significant voting power in the buyer through a managed investment scheme. (see amendment note)

AIMS-related unitholders have leaned on their substantial voting block to stymie previous winding-up attempts, including Samuel Terry's first such bid in January 2017.

Samuel Terry and another investment firm, Sandon Capital, had requisitioned a unitholders' meeting in late October, proposing to wind up AIMS Property Securities Fund. They cited dissatisfaction with issues such as a trading discount to the net asset value and portfolio allocation to related-party investments.

A few weeks later, the fund manager called a general meeting of its own for Dec 7. There were two motions on the agenda at that meeting: one to wind up the fund, which lost; and one that gave the manager a mandate to carry out a strategic review of the fund, which passed.

Amendment note:

A previous version of this article said that a previous substantial unitholder, AIMS Capital Management, was the manager of the fund. AIMS Fund Management is in fact the manager, while AIMS Capital Management is a related entity. The article has been corrected to reflect this.