Two South West green energy companies have renewed a feud after Ecotricity filed a resolution to remove a director from the board of rival supplier Good Energy.
Chippenham-based Good Energy has called a general meeting of its shareholders after it received a requisition notice from Ecotricity on Christmas Eve, calling for a vote on an ordinary resolution to remove William Whitehorn as Good Energy chairman.
Ecotricity, which is owned by Gloucestershire-based businessman Dale Vince - the chairman of League 2 football club Forest Green Rovers - has also triggered a vote on Good Energy’s plans to sell off its renewable power generation assets.
In November AIM-listed Good Energy announced it was putting its entire 47.5MW generation portfolio, valued at £56.8m, up for sale, as part of a shift towards decentralised energy and mobility services, driven by further investment in its electric vehicle (EV) mapping platform Zap Map.
Ecotricity has brought a special resolution to direct Good Energy’s board not to dispose of the group’s generation assets without shareholder approval.
The company said the strategic direction had received strong shareholder support, following the lapse of what it called a “hostile takeover” attempt by Ecotricity last year.
Ecotricity had made an offer to acquire Good Energy for 400p a share, as part of a proposed buyout worth around £70m, including the shares it already owns in its competitor, which amount to around 25%.
Mr Vince previously claimed that Good Energy shareholders were not informed by its board during the takeover bid about what he described as plans to “break up the business”.
He said the decision to sell off the renewable generation portfolio could lead to Good Energy share prices being worth “substantially less” than Ecotricty’s offer.
In a circular issued on Friday (January 14) Good Energy’s board recommended that shareholders vote against both resolutions.
Bosses said Mr Whitehorn had a successful track record since joining the board, had overseen revenue growth through 2019 and 2020, and had “the skills to lead our modern and digital first strategy".
The board said it had begun an auction process run by KPMG for the sale of its generation portfolio, which would allow it to invest further in its decentralised, digitised clean energy and transport services, a strategy it said had “huge headroom for growth.”
It added the move would allow it to capitalise on the “rapidly growing” UK electric vehicle (EV) driver market, of which is said its subsidiary Zap-Map had a 70% share with more than 320,000 registered users.
Good Energy’s directors said Ecotricity had “long demonstrated a pattern of disruptive behaviour” towards it and its operations, adding that its actions were motivated by its position as a competitor that wanted to block the company’s ability to push forward with its new strategy.
The board cited Mr Vince’s attempt to appoint himself to Good Energy’s board as a non-executive director in 2017, after reportedly being unhappy with the company’s support for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project, run by Good Energy founder Julie Davenport’s husband Mark Shorrock.
Mr Vince tweeted a response to Good Energy’s statement on Friday, which he described as “untruthful”.
Mr Vince said: "Since requesting this meeting for shareholders to vote on these two resolutions - we have had a number of discussions with the board at their request - seeking to avoid holding this meeting.
"They offered us the resignation of the chairman Will Whitehorn, if we could agree to the sale of their generation assets - and drop the EGM. But that made no sense to us, selling generation will fundamentally damage the company and shareholder value - it's an asset strip and we oppose it.
"Yesterday we turned down the offer, today they issued a fairly hostile statement with all the usual claims of 'disruptive behaviour' and so on. This paints an untruthful picture - or tries to."
A quick update on what's really going on with Good Energy and our request for an Extraordinary General Meeting. pic.twitter.com/74lyGLqmVP
— Dale Vince (@DaleVince)
BusinessLive contacted Good Energy regarding Mr Vince’s response and it declined to comment further.
The requisitioned general meeting will be held on February 11 at the offices of SEC Newgate in London. Good Energy said shareholders could vote on the two resolutions online or by post, with all proxy votes to be received by 9am on February 9.
An ordinary resolution requires a simple majority of entitled members to vote in favour in order for it to be passed while a special resolution requires a majority of at least 75%.
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