RHG backtracks on delisting
The board of RHG Group has changed tack and will maintain an ASX listing following the planned selective share buyback at 88 cents that will be considered at a special meeting after Easter.The planned resignation of one of the independent directors, John McGuigan, will also now not proceed.A pair of activist fund managers, along with a raft of small shareholders, has objected to the planned delisting. The group, which includes Wilson Asset Management and Cadence Asset Management, also want to remove another RHG director (Greg Jones) and elect three new directors to the board.While the status of the ASX listing is one issue in dispute between the board and shareholders, so too is value. Shares are now trading hands at $1.04, 16 cents more than the value of the buyback.On this point, John Kinghorn, chair of the board, emphasised in a letter published through the ASX that RHG was "unable to attract a bidder" for its residual $4 billion home loan book "either at the reserve price or any price".This point is contested by some sources, though no conforming offers for the book were forthcoming when bids were due early this year.Kinghorn has rubbished reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that have suggested major banks or private equity groups might be seeking to buy the RHG book.