Corporate raider Edward Bramson fires new attack at Electra

Corporate raider Edward Bramson has renewed his attempt to get on the board of Electra Private Equity, the owner of TGI Friday and the Original Bowling Company among other investments.

Electra chairman Roger Yates said the board would reject Bramson’s advances again, and called on shareholders to do likewise.

He said: “If you look at our results this is a really successful business and Bramson has given us no explanation of what he would do to change it or how he could improve it.”

Bramson’s call for another meeting of shareholders comes almost exactly a year after 60% of Electra’s investors voted against a similar attempt by his Sherborne Investors.

Since then Bramson has raised his stake from 20% to just under 30%, but Electra’s share price has risen by 19% and its net asset value by 22%.

Yates said that he had met Bramson and other Sherborne representatives three times.

He said: “Given Sherborne’s emphasis on operational turnarounds you would expect meetings with the managers to be fairly detailed but, in fact, the level of engagement was pretty poor.”

Sherborne disputed this, saying: “During the negotiations a series of contractual, legal, procedural and regulatory obstacles raised by the board were successfully overcome but, ultimately, Mr Yates told us that any board representation for Sherborne Investors was a ‘red line’ for him, without offering any sensible explanation.”

It added that Electra’s senior independent director Dame Kate Barker and other board members had since been “much more forthcoming”.