Ironsides Criticizes Nefarious Conduct of External Manager That Occurred Ahead of FSFR Annual Meeting
April 07 2016 - 1:46PM
Business Wire
Director Results Too Close To Call Following
Last Minute Appointment To FSAM Board
Ironsides Partners LLC and its affiliates, one of the largest
stockholders of Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp. (NASDAQ:
FSFR) with a combined ownership interest of approximately 6.4% of
FSFR’s outstanding shares, today criticized the actions of the
controllers of FSFR’s external manager for directing votes at the
FSFR 2016 Annual Meeting held this morning. According to
preliminary vote tabulations, the vote on the election of Robert C.
Knapp and Richard W. Cohen to FSFR’s Board of Directors is too
close to call.
Ahead of this morning’s meeting, Fifth Street Asset Management
Inc. (NASDAQ: FSAM), the parent company of FSFR’s external manager,
announced that Mangrove Partners agreed to vote its approximately
932,000 FSFR shares together with FSFR management, as part of an
agreement under which Mangroves’ founder and President, Nathaniel
August, would be appointed to FSAM’s Board of Directors. FSAM is
controlled by FSFR’s founder Leonard M. Tannenbaum.
This follows a prior announcement that RiverNorth Capital
Management, LLC agreed to vote its approximately 5.7% holding in
FSFR with management, after Mr. Tannenbaum agreed to purchase
RiverNorth’s position in Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ: FSC)
at a premium to market. FSC is a sister company to FSFR that was
also founded by Mr. Tannenbaum.
Robert C. Knapp, Chief Investment Officer of Ironsides, said,
“We thank stockholders for their support in the face of an 11th
hour vote swap and other nefarious dealings. The investment
community at large should be appalled by the actions of the
controllers of FSFR’s external manager, who utilized their
resources to cause the direction of votes in favor of management at
the FSFR Annual Meeting. Investors should be forcefully asking
whether an external investment manager should be allowed to
interfere in a stockholder vote in this way, in order to promote
its own interests.
“We believe once all ballots are counted results will show that
unaffiliated stockholders by a substantial margin supported our
efforts for changes to the Board at FSFR, given FSFR’s prolonged
underperformance, pervasive discount to NAV and payment of
unjustified incentive fees.”
About Ironsides
Ironsides Partners LLC is an investment management firm and
SEC-registered investment adviser based in Boston, Massachusetts.
The firm was founded in 2007 by Robert C. Knapp, who serves as
Managing Director.
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Media:Sard Verbinnen & Co.Paul Caminiti/Meghan
Gavigan/Amanda Klein212-687-8080orInvestors:Okapi Partners
LLCBruce Goldfarb/Charles
Garske212-297-0720fixFSFR@okapipartners.com
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