Court rejects Thorn’s bid to block shareholder meeting

John Kavanagh

Thorn Group has shut 62 Radio Rentals stores this year.

Consumer finance company Thorn Group will call a shareholder meeting to consider removing the current directors and appointing new ones.

Thorn had tried to stop the meeting, which was requested by a group of shareholders, and the matter ended up in court.

This week the Supreme Court of Victoria ruled that the shareholder notice requesting the meeting was not invalid, as Thorn had argued.

Under chair Warren McLeland, most of the current board members were appointed in 2019. One of them, Kent Bird, quit earlier this month after only serving a year.

The company has been through difficult times. It made a big payout last year to settle a class action, which tipped it into loss.

Its revenue has been under pressure and this year it closed its 62 Radio Rentals stores.

Its C-suite has had a revolving door.

Thorn’s biggest shareholders are fund managers ICM Ltd, which owns 30.7 per cent, Forager Funds Management (15.4 per cent) and Investors Mutual (7.2 per cent).