New ammunition in conflict with Coucke: top Unifiedpost collects 1.3 million extra shares

The management of digital invoicing specialist Unifiedpost is converting its warrant plans into shares. This gives the top of the company extra weight in the battle with major shareholder Alychlo, the investment vehicle of entrepreneur Marc Coucke.

New episode in the war that broke out this week at the Walloon Brabant software company Unifiedpost

. In a press release Friday morning, the digital invoicing specialist announced that the company’s management is converting its warrant plans into shares. This means that a total of around 1.3 million new shares can be deployed at the general meeting later this month.

At the beginning of this week, an open conflict erupted at Unifiedpost when major shareholder Alychlo – the investment company of businessman Marc Coucke – had a number of additional items placed on the agenda of the shareholders’ meeting out of dissatisfaction with the policy. Alychlo is asking for the resignation of directors Stefan Yee and Michael Kleindl, and in addition to two of its own people on the board, it also wants to appoint two independent directors – software entrepreneurs Jurgen Ingels (Smartfin) and Joris Van Der Gucht (Silverfin).

This demarche is part of a simmering dissatisfaction with the performance of Unifiedpost, which, according to Alychlo, is not keeping its promises and is doing too little to address the situation. The board and management continue to strongly believe in the current course and preach patience. This stalemate will culminate in a ballot box battle among the shareholders on May 21, with the future of Unifiedpost at stake.

The top management of Unifiedpost is now providing itself with some extra ammunition. By converting the warrant plans – a form of remuneration in shares – a total of 1,307,500 new shares will be created, which will soon be able to help decide the fate of the board. The majority of this goes to founder and CEO Hans Leybaert.

Depending on the plan, the top pays 18.30, 18.37 or 34 euros per subscription right for ten new shares. Management can therefore fill its basket per share at a discount compared to the closing price on Thursday evening, when the share closed at 3.90 euros. In total, the Unifiedpost operation yields 2.4 million euros.

According to founder and CEO Hans Leybaert, the conversion into shares can be seen as a signal to the shareholders. “Our decision to exercise our subscription rights reflects our strong belief in Unifiedpost’s strategy, market position and ability to deliver long-term value to our shareholders while strengthening our balance sheet position,” it said.

Whether the extra firepower will be enough to achieve a majority on May 21 remains to be seen. After this operation, Leybaert and chairman Stefan Yee’s PE Group will have approximately the same voting rights as Alychlo, which owns about 17 percent of Unifiedpost. What will be crucial is what the second largest shareholder (15%), insurer NN Group, will do. That’s a waste of money for the time being.