The Sonic Fund II, L.P. Comments on Preliminary Voting Results of Adverum Annual Meeting
May 12 2021 - 3:17PM
Business Wire
Urges Company to Take Necessary Steps to Focus
on Scientific Development of ADVM-022
Believes Company Cannot Continue to Pursue
Status Quo Strategy, Which Has Been Abjectly Discredited
Calls on Board to Fulfill Their Fiduciary
Duties to Stockholders and Exercise Better Oversight of
Management
The Sonic Fund II, L.P. (“Sonic”), which beneficially owns
approximately 6.8% of the outstanding common stock of Adverum
Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) (the “Company” or “Adverum”),
today issued the following statement regarding the preliminary
voting results from the Company’s 2021 Annual Meeting of
Stockholders (the “2021 Annual Meeting”).
“We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the stockholders
who supported our push for change and an improved Board at Adverum.
We would also like to thank our three independent nominees for
being willing to serve on the Board.
We continue to firmly believe that Adverum stockholders deserve
better from the Board entrusted with representing their best
interests. Objective third parties, including both leading proxy
advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) and
Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC (“Glass Lewis”) agreed that change is
needed and recommended that stockholders vote FOR all three of
Sonic’s nominees – with Glass Lewis emphasizing that the recent
SUSAR announcement “…laid bare the Company’s shortcomings in
addressing the inflammation issue…”1 It is not common that both ISS
and Glass Lewis recommend in exactly the same manner, and this is
further evidence of the seriousness of the Company’s failures.
Adverum cannot credibly continue on its same strategic path and
failed approach to the development of ADVM-022. We sincerely hope
that now that this proxy contest is over, the Board and management
can spend less time on employing what ISS called “brute force”
tactics to entrench themselves and do what needs to be done. The
Company must immediately refocus its efforts on the scientific
development of ADVM-022 to serve critical patient needs. And the
Board must immediately begin to take its fiduciary duties to
stockholders more seriously, including with better oversight of
management.
Adverum must do better. Stockholders will be watching.”
1 Permission to quote from the ISS and Glass Lewis reports was
neither sought nor obtained.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005952/en/
Investors: Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC John Ferguson /
Ann Marie Mellone 212-257-1311 jferguson@saratogaproxy.com /
amellone@saratogaproxy.com
Media: Sloane & Company Joe Germani / Sarah
Braunstein jgermani@sloanepr.com / sbraunstein@sloanepr.com
Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADVM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ:ADVM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024