Khan resumes Biota board campaign

The majority shareholder in Biota Holdings, Perth lawyer Farooq Khan, has resumed his campaign to force his way onto the listed biotech's board.

Khan has notified the Australian Stock Exchange that he will call a general meeting of Biota shareholders to vote on his request for a board seat, a move that seems likely to trigger a proxy battle.

The meeting will be convened in Melbourne at Khan's expense and at time yet to be announced but probably mid to late January.

Khan is opposed by Biota's existing board which has painted him as a corporate raider interested mainly in the company's $30 million cash in hand .

When he first approached Biota's board in October, as he was building up what has become a 9.5 per cent stake in Biota, Khan was seeking two board seats.

His current call for a general meeting says he will be looking only for one directorship on the six-person board.

The announcement also indicated that Khan intends to exploit an undercurrent of shareholder unrest with board remuneration and performance which surfaced at Biota's annual general meeting on November 1.

He will put forward a resolution limiting the annual salaries of non-executive directors to $35,000 each and scrap any further share options without shareholder approval and cap the ceiling on total non-executive directors' remuneration at $175,000 instead of the current $400,000.

He has pledged to waive his entitlement to director's fees if appointed to the board.

At the meeting, Khan will seek shareholder approval for a strategic review of Biota to be conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu at the expense of Bigshop.com.au, the listed entity through which Khan holds his stake in Biota.

Formal notification of the meeting should be sent out to Biota shareholders within the next two weeks, according to Bigshop.com.au company secretary Victor Ho.