Call Sign January 2004 - Page 17 - CALL SIGN LOOKS AT A WAR IN MANGANESE BRONZE

In February 2003, Call Sign became the first trade magazine to report that the-then Manganese Bronze Holdings Chairman, Jamie Borwick, was in fact the person behind the approach – said to be in the region of £15million - made to buy MBH. The bid was received before Jamie’s resignation. Soon after, he left the Board with non-exec director Tim Melville-Ross taking over as Chairman on a "temporary" basis until a replacement was brought in. Tim is still there… Tim told Call Sign at the time that the MBH Board had found themselves in the boardroom with one point of view being held by Jamie as then-Chairman, and another by the rest of the Board. "If Jamie has it in mind to put an offer together," he said at the time, "then our view is that he should do so from outside the company." However, just a few short months later, Jamie Borwick blamed "non-cooperation" by his former directors for his decision to drop the plans he had for buying MBH. He also blamed his withdrawal on a "breakdown of relations" with his former Board members. Jamie told us at the time: "Given the Board's lack of co-operation, I am not prepared to proceed with an offer." Jamie Borwick cannot be disassociated with MBH as he Former MBH Chairman Jamie Borwick during a visit to Dial - a - Cab.	CALL SIGN LOOKS AT A WAR IN MANGANESE BRONZE
	MBH Cheif Executive Ian Pickering. owns a direct stake of 3.3% and also heads a group (Rutland Investments), which claims a 37% shareholding. This had been his second attempted buy out – the first being in April 99, which was rejected. Then last month at the MBH AGM, Chief Executive, Ian Pickering, was deposed when Jamie used his chunk of shares to block his reselection. Jamie claimed that share options given to Ian Pickering contravened share-dealing rules as they were offered when the executives knew they were going to close a sale that could shift the price. However, the Board then reconvened another meeting at which Ian Pickering was reinstated! Jamie is now threatening to take his complaint to the Financial Services Authority saying that he doesn’t believe a Board should be able to reinstate a Chief Executive when shareholders had blocked that election. MBH say that everything they have done has been by the book. A recent Sunday Times interview with Ian Pickering disclosed how relations between the parties have deteriorated. It told of how MBH, formerly based in Swan Lane in the building owned by Jamie’s family shareholding, had to move to Ropemaker Street when Jamie moved in the team who were	making the bid onto another floor. According to Ian Pickering, Jamie’s consortium failed to raise the capital to cover their latest 80p a share offer "… and anyway," said Ian, "it was wildly undervalued!" Now, relations between Ian Pickering and Jamie Borwick have nose-dived to an all-time low with neither speaking to the other, although Tim Melville-Ross and Jamie maintain contacts of sorts. Jamie Borwick says that it’s nothing personal, while Ian Pickering admits that Jamie is very passionate about taxis and the taxi business, something Call Sign has always known and accepted. Jamie claims the company is overvalued and heading for a fall, while Tim Melville-Ross says that Pickering is focused and very talented "…and when he says he will do something, he does it. He also has huge integrity, something which makes the current row all the more extraordinary," added Tim. Tim Melville-Ross had the last word for the Manganese side when he said that he wasn’t sure what the outcome would be: "Either Jamie gets a bid together which takes us ‘private’ or he sells his shares and moves into something he can help run." To which Jamie responded to by saying that his family had held Manganese shares for over 40 years "…and I expect that we will be holding on to them for another 40!" The situation remains on impasse, but with MBH being the parent company of LTI, it surely cannot be allowed to remain that way for too much longer. Someone is going to have to back down. The question though, is who…?