(Reuters) – Activist investor Blackwells Capital on Wednesday urged cell-tower operator IHS Holding Ltd to overhaul the company’s board by appointing new independent directors in a bid to offer more transparency to shareholders.
Blackwells, a long-term shareholder of IHS, said that the IHS management has “no serious focus” and that its performance “does not remotely approach the implied financial performance” from its initial public offering prospectus.
“The stock price remains low in substantial part because the company refuses to embrace transparency with investors,” Blackwells said in a letter sent to the company’s board.
IHS, which has a market capitalization of above $3 billion, declined to comment.
The company’s U.S. shares closed 9.8% higher on Tuesday at $9.58, much less that its IPO price of $21 a share in 2021.
Blackwells added that it wrote a letter to IHS’ board last year expressing concerns about the company’s operational, management, and governance issues. However, IHS did not address any of the concerns, it said.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
