Plus SMS halted vote on shares for CEO

Thursday 25th September 2008 1 Comment

Plus SMS Holdings, the unprofitable company that sells mobile phone services using Microsoft Windows Live, withdrew a shareholder vote on issuing shares to CEO Christopher Tiensch equivalent to 3.3% of the company on legal advice.

Tiensch last week stood down as chairman, resigned as a director and gave six months notice that he planned to quit as chief executive. He plans to challenge the decision, the company said today, via a statement from Christchurch law firm Clark Boyce. It declined further comment.

At the September 4 meeting it withdrew a resolution to issue Tiensch with 13.5 million new ordinary shares pending a second legal opinion on the validity of the transaction under the CEO's employment contract. It stands by that decision, according to the statement. Last week it named Robert Hunter as new chairman.

Tiensch "has given notice of his wish to arbitrate his entitlements (and) it would be inappropriate for the board to give any further comment in relation to those matters at this stage, it said.

Shares of Plus SMS, which trade on the NZAX, traded unchanged at 3.5 cents and have dropped 50% this year. They traded as high as 80 cents in November 2005.

The company's unit generates revenue from licenses and fees for services related to mobile phones including embedding its clients' software on handsets and gaining income from billing and connectivity, according to its website.

By Jonathan Underhill

Comments from our readers

On 15 September 2011 at 3:33 pm rrsmom said:

This man, Tiensch, has gone missing in Port Aransas, TX.