11 May 2019
FIRSTGROUP PLC
STATEMENT RE SHAREHOLDER NOTICE FROM COAST CAPITAL
FirstGroup plc (“FirstGroup” or the “Company”) announces that it
has received a requisition notice dated 10
May 2019 from Hermes-Golden Limited, a company managed by
Coast Capital Management LP (“Coast Capital”), to call a general
meeting of the Company.
Coast Capital, who have notified the Company that it holds 9.77%
of the Company’s issued share capital, have proposed resolutions to
take control of the Board of FirstGroup by removing six of the
current eleven Directors and appointing seven of their
nominees.
The Board of FirstGroup are focused on delivering shareholder
value and are confident that the Company has the right team with
the right experience and plans in place to do so. The Board
regularly reviews its composition to ensure it maintains an
appropriate balance of skills and expertise, and new Board members
have been added, as recently as earlier this month.
As previously indicated to the market, the Company will be
releasing its full year results and updating on progress and
strategy on 30 May 2019.
FirstGroup considers the views of all shareholders and,
accordingly, will continue to engage with Coast Capital having
attempted to do so constructively for more than a year. The
Company’s engagement with Coast Capital has included detailed
responses to several proposals and has involved a number of
meetings with the Chairman and with senior management.
The Board will be writing to shareholders regarding the
requisition notice in due course.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION. The person
responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on
behalf of FirstGroup is Michael
Hampson, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary.
Classification as per DTR 6 Annex 1R: 2.2. Legal Entity Identifier
(LEI): 549300DEJZCPWA4HKM93.
Contacts at FirstGroup:
Faisal Tabbah, Head of Investor
Relations
Stuart Butchers, Group Head of Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7725 3354
Contacts at Brunswick PR:
Andrew Porter / Alison Lea, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 5959
About FirstGroup
FirstGroup plc (LSE: FGP.L) is a leading provider of transport
services in the UK and North
America. With £6.4 billion in revenue and around 100,000
employees, we transported 2.1 billion passengers last year. Whether
for business, education, health, social or recreation – we get our
customers where they want to be, when they want to be there. We
create solutions that reduce complexity, making travel smoother and
life easier.
We provide easy and convenient
mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and
communities.
Each of our five divisions is a leader in its field: In North
America, First Student is the largest provider of home-to-school
student transportation with a fleet of 42,500 yellow school buses,
First Transit is one of the largest providers of outsourced transit
management and contracting services, while Greyhound is the only
nationwide operator of scheduled intercity coaches. In the UK,
First Bus is one of Britain's
largest bus companies with 1.6 million passengers a day, and First
Rail is one of the country's largest and most experienced rail
operators, carrying more than 260 million passengers last year.
Visit our website at www.firstgroupplc.com and follow us
@firstgroupplc on Twitter.