Diegem 19/12/2019 - RSQ Investors, a division of Quanteus Group focusing on investments with a substantial upwards potential resulting from special or exceptional situations, acquired together with related parties a stake above the 3% threshold in Nyrstar NV/SA, a Belgian stock quoted company and (at least until recently) the world’s second largest zinc smelter.
Next to its social purpose, RSQ Investors’ investment serves a dual purpose:
Provide support to the legal actions aiming at demonstrating the possible abuse of control by Trafigura (reference shareholder with 24.4% of the shares in Nyrstar) and the impact thereof on the profitability and shareholder value of Nyrstar, as well as defending the interests of the minority shareholders of Nyrstar in this respect;
Contribute to a public debate on the (lack of) effective protection of minority shareholders and the need for a more powerful policy aimed at protecting our business patrimony against foreign companies who purposefully identify loopholes in the protection mechanism to exploit it to their advantage, resulting in an economic impoverishment of our region.
Kris Vansanten, Managing Partner: “An increasing number of elements confirm the possibility of Trafigura having applied a well-designed strategy to incorporate Nyrstar by surprise, while denying the most fundamental minority shareholder rights and resulting in a total loss of their holdings in the Company.
This investment reflects our fundamental belief in the resilience of our constitutional state, and our conviction that the substantial economic value which was possibly unfairly transferred to the reference shareholder will ultimately be returned to the rightful owners, being the minority shareholders of the stock quoted Nyrstar. We believe that the regulatory and supervisory authorities and the competent courts ultimately will conclude that it is not possible for a reference shareholder, who at least has partial responsibility for the conditions that led to the hastily implemented restructuring, to ultimately show up as the only winner thereof, taking all the proceeds for himself while leaving the minority shareholders empty-handed despite their year-long contribution to the investments of the past.
Via this way we also want to stress the urgency to actively intervene in the daily management of the company, in order to fully unlock all needed and desired information, to allow the whistle-blower to talk freely to the competent authorities, and to stop the ongoing integration of the operational activities and the financial reporting into Trafigura and the possible removal of potentially incriminating information. Even more since the Extraordinary General Assembly of December 9 confirmed convincingly that the acting Board (dismissed by the shareholders present) acts de facto under full control by Trafigura, and is even contractually obliged to do so. The signing by the Board of a loan agreement with Trafigura in the amount of EUR 13.5 million, of which EUR 5 million is reserved for Nyrstar’s litigation lawyers to fight against its own minority shareholders in their attempt to return the unfairly transferred economic ownership of the operational companies to Nyrstar, speaks for itself”.