Nick Bolton tries to round up 99 like-minded Magellan unitholders

afr.com:

Nick Bolton is stepping up his campaign against Magellan Financial’s Global Fund, writing to a select group of unitholders last week and asking them to join him to force the company to the negotiating table.

The emails, seen by Street Talk, were directed to individual shareholders, with the value of their unique shareholding calculated.

Keybridge Capital managing director Nicholas Bolton. Jessica Shapiro

“As you may be aware, the price of our MGF units trade on the ASX at a substantial discount to the actual entitlement we have in trust,” the email said. “With the assistance of 99 other members, we are looking to request a meeting of unitholders to consider a resolution that requires the redemption of our units at the full NAV of the fund.”

He continued that if the discount persists, when the options expire in March, unitholders are “leaving some $500 million on the table”.

Of course, that’s a world away from what Bolton was apparently telling Magellan management. Last week, Street Talk reported that he and his fellow Keybridge Capital investor, ex-Domain boss Antony Catalano, hadpetitioned the investment house’s board to do a bilateral deal with him and buy the options he held in the fund in exchange for a stand-still agreement.

That appeared to those present that Bolton and Catalano were proposing a special arrangement for Keybridge – something that those close to the discussion said had “reeked of self-interest” – although the two activist investors understandably did not see it that way.

Bolton made a similar move in his most notorious activist play when, as a 26-year-old investor, he shot to prominence holding the $4.9 billion BrisConnections float to ransom by snapping up 1¢ shares.

That pitted him against