Kelso Group Holdings (LON: KLSO), a small UK investment vehicle that builds concentrated stakes in undervalued companies, has published a detailed rebuttal against the board of TheWorks.co.uk (LON: WRKS), the AIM-listed arts-and-crafts retailer, escalating its campaign to install fellow shareholder Graeme Coulthard as a director.
KLSO shares traded at 3.7p in early dealing today, up 5.71% from Friday’s close of 3.5p and a fresh 52-week high, against a 52-week low of 2.22p. The stock is thinly traded, and no confirmed link has been established between the statement and the move beyond the timing.
Kelso, which holds 10% of The Works and had two directors on its board between February and October 2024, filed its full response earlier today, following a shorter statement on Friday. It repeats a call for shareholders to back Resolution 15, a requisitioned resolution to appoint Coulthard as a director with immediate effect. The Works’ board recommends voting against the resolution, arguing, according to coverage of its rebuttal, that Coulthard has “limited experience as a director of a listed company and no executive experience in multi-site value retail operations” and that his appointment would “undermine, rather than enhance long-term shareholder value.”
Kelso’s rebuttal defends Coulthard’s credentials, pointing to his five years on the board of comparable value retailer Card Factory from 2010 to 2015, through its store expansion and 2014 flotation, while he was a partner at private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, which led Card Factory’s 2010 acquisition. Coulthard has held more than 8% of The Works since January 2020. Combined with Kelso’s stake, the two shareholders control around 18% of the register, a scale Kelso says justifies one additional board seat.
“The election of one additional director to a board of five, supported by shareholders holding some 18% of the register, is a modest and reasonable request,” Kelso Group Holdings said in its RNS statement.
Shareholders must submit proxies by 2pm on 3 September ahead of The Works’ AGM on 7 September, when Resolution 15 will be decided.