HONG KONG, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A large portion of institutional investors do not support the slate of director nominees offered by GOME's jailed founder and largest shareholder, the Chinese home appliances retailer said on Friday, as it faces a key vote on the future of its business.
GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd has called a special general meeting on Sept. 28 to discuss measures proposed by founder and ex-chairman Wong Kwong Yu, regarding the removal of the current chairman and other board members. Wong is known on the mainland as Huang Guangyu.
The meeting will also vote on Huang's call to cancel a mandate to empower the board of directors to issue additional shares representing up to 20 percent of the company.
"We have spoken with institutions representing 42 percent of GOME shares and we have yet to talk with a single fund manager who will be supporting Mr. Huang's nominees to replace our existing board directors," a GOME spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. (US$1=HK$7.77) (Reporting by Donny Kwok and Michelle Chen; Editing by Chris Lewis)