Canadian aerospace manufacturer Spar is facing a shareholder mutiny following an attempted hostile takeover by IMP Group, also of Canada.
At a meeting scheduled for 13 May, investors controlling some 58% of Toronto-based Spar's stock are expected to oust seven of the company's 12-member board, with an eighth director having resigned.
IMP, which holds 15% of Spar shares, is keen to launch a formal takeover bid, but has been frustrated by its target's failure to provide information, and its steady disposal of assets subsidiary to its core aviation activities. IMP chairman Ken Rowe wrote to Spar president Colin Watson on 18 March asking him to "refrain from undertaking any further sale of major assets", only for the sale of Spar's space robotics division to be announced the next day.
Spar has sold its space and communications businesses, restructuring around its Aviation Services business. The strategy saw the company post a net income of C$31 million ($20 million) last year, compared with a net loss of C$37 million for 1997, while at the same time reducing turnover by 50% to C$251 million - half of which came from the space robotics arm seemingly destined for Orbital Sciences' Canadian subsidiary McDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
Source: Flight International
