Polymer bead start-up investor falls from grace
22/10/2019
Xeros, which earlier this year announced the spin-off of its leather-sector business under the new name Qualus, received substantial investment from Neil Woodford, the UK’s best known picker of stocks.
Official documents show that, at the end of 2018, Mr Woodford’s company had almost 40% of the voting rights in the Xeros Technology Group. By October 2019, when the fund’s administrators announced it will not reopen, Woodford Investment Management’s involvement in Xeros had reduced to 13.2% of the voting rights.
After the announcement, Qualus told World Leather that, at the time of the spin-off, the Qualus brand and the operating assets pertaining to Xeros’ tanning business were acquired by a company called ESTR Limited.
“This is a new company established by the Qualus management team to enable the spin-out,” it said in a statement. “As such, Qualus (the trading name used by ESTR Limited) is now independent from Xeros. Neither Neil Woodford nor any fund related to Neil Woodford is a shareholder in ESTR Limited.”
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