Iconic Labs PLC (LON:ICON) has issued an update on the status of its discussions with the European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund (EHGOF) to settle all outstanding issues.
The company said that following the failure of EHGOF to accept a revised settlement offer that the company made to settle all matters outstanding with EHGOF as well as the outstanding issues with Ott Holdings Limited and Alpha Blue Ocean (ABO), and which the group considered to be commercially acceptable and fair to all parties, directors John Quinlan, Liam Harrington and Sam Asante have considered their position in light of EHGOF, OTT Holdings and ABO's failure to engage in meaningful dialogue in order to reach a settlement, and considered their roles to be untenable and resigned with immediate effect on January 31, 2020.
READ: Iconic Labs responds to announcement by OTT Holdings
The firm continued, saying the board of directors considered the situation had now reached a stalemate, and that the former directors believed they have been “placed in an impossible position to resolve these issues” and that it is for the good of the company, its shareholders and the stakeholders as a whole that they resign and that the current non-executive director, Katharine Lewis, is best placed to assess the company's options going forward.
Iconic Labs said Lewis will remain as a director for a period to enable an assessment of all options for the company going forward and ensure as needed an orderly transition of the corporate books and records to newly appointed directors. Following this, she intends to resign from the board.
“The former directors are very disappointed in the actions of OTT Holdings, EHGOF and ABO, and that as a result they have been placed in a situation which they believe is unsatisfactory to all concerned and which they believe has arisen principally as a result of EHGOF reneging on a plan to move away from the [convertible loan note] funding structure as discussed with them during 2020, and on a settlement the company believed was agreed in principle last year, which has led to a complete and irrevocable breakdown in trust between the parties”, the company said in a statement.
“Consequently, in order to fully discharge their duties as directors and acting in the best interests of the shareholders and stakeholders of the company as a whole they have resigned from the company as they strongly believe OTT Holdings, EHGOF and ABO have no interest in reaching a commercially acceptable settlement, and that without their resignations the current unacceptable stalemate would continue, further damaging the share value of the company”, it added.
In a separate announcement, Iconic said it has received notices of termination of the management service agreements between the company and Greencastle Capital in respect of the JOE Media and TheLondonEconomic businesses, which are to take immediate effect.
Ott Holdings Ltd issued a statement last week where it said it was the holder of 5,735,555,554 shares of Iconic and was calling for reform at the company ahead of an extraordinary general meeting that it had requested.