Result of AGM and Investment Manager Update

abrdn Private Equity Opp Trst plc

27 March 2024

 

abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust plc

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): 2138004MK7VPTZ99EV13

27 March 2024

Result of Annual General Meeting & Investment Manager Update

Result of AGM

At the Annual General Meeting of abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust plc (the "Company" or "APEO") held on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, all the Resolutions as set out in full in the Notice of Meeting included within the Company's Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2023, available on the Company's website www.abrdnpeot.com*, were duly passed.

Proxy votes

The proxy votes received in respect of the AGM resolutions proposed at the meeting are shown in the table below:

	For and Discretionary		Against		Votes	Total Votes
Resolution Number	No. of Votes	% of Votes Cast	No. of Votes	% of Votes Cast	Withheld	(excluding Votes Withheld)
1.    Receive the Annual Report and Financial Statements	109,836,666	100.00	3,722	0.00	11,691	109,840,388
2.    Approve the Directors' Remuneration Report	109,660,172	99.86	155,541	0.14	36,366	109,815,713
3.    Approve the Dividend Policy	109,838,935	100.00	3,722	0.00	9,422	109,842,657
4.    Re-elect Mr Agble	109,783,542	99.98	20,309	0.02	48,228	109,803,851
5.    Re-elect Mr Devine	109,748,143	99.95	51,436	0.05	52,500	109,799,579
6.    Re-elect Ms Seymour-Williams	109,778,477	99.99	15,957	0.01	57,645	109,794,434
7.    Re-elect Ms Stillhart	109,788,129	99.99	15,722	0.01	48,228	109,803,851
8.    Re-elect Mr Thomson	109,779,716	99.98	24,135	0.02	48,228	109,803,851
9.    Re-appoint BDO LLP as Auditor	109,787,683	99.96	47,269	0.04	17,127	109,834,952
10. Remuneration of the Auditor	109,823,435	99.99	15,573	0.01	13,071	109,839,008
11. Allotment of new equity	109,814,610	99.98	27,015	0.02	10,454	109,841,625
12. Disapply  pre-emption rights	109,174,155	99.41	653,166	0.59	24,758	109,827,321
13. Authorise market purchases of ordinary shares	107,895,091	98.23	1,941,487	1.77	15,501	109,836,578
14. Approve holding meetings on less than 14 days' notice	109,722,870	99.90	111,598	0.10	17,611	109,834,468
15. Adoption of new Articles of Association	109,738,298	99.92	83,135	0.08	30,646	109,821,433

Copies of the resolutions passed under special business will shortly be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for inspection at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism*.

*Neither the NSM website nor the Company's website nor the content of any website accessible from hyperlinks on those websites (or any other website) is (or is deemed to be) incorporated into, or forms (or is deemed to form) part of this announcement.

Investment Manager Update

At the AGM, Mr Devine, the APEO Chair, also provided an update, further to the Company's announcement on 16 October 2023, on the status of sale by abrdn plc ("abrdn") of its European-headquartered Private Equity business, including the Company's investment manager, abrdn Capital Partners LLP, to an indirect subsidiary of Patria Investments Limited ("Patria")(the "Transaction"). 

Mr Devine said:

"In October 2023, abrdn announced the conditional sale of its European-headquartered Private Equity business, which includes APEO's investment manager, abrdn Capital Partners LLP, to an indirect subsidiary of Patria Investments Limited, a global alternative asset manager established in Latin America.

As I mentioned in our Annual Report, the Board has been undertaking extensive diligence on the proposed Transaction with abrdn, our investment management team, and with Patria, to fully understand the impact of the sale, and what it means for APEO and its shareholders.

I am pleased to confirm that the Board has completed its due diligence exercise and has agreed to consent to the Transaction by waiving the "Manager Change of Control" provisions set out in our Investment Management Agreement. 

During our diligence, we received various assurances, including that there will be: (i) no change to the management and administration services which are provided to APEO; (ii) no change to APEO's investment management process; and (iii) no change to the personnel managing APEO. Importantly, we also received comfort that the Transaction will be cost neutral for the Company - there are not expected to be any additional costs to the Company (and so shareholders) as a result of it.

The Transaction remains subject to regulatory approval and, upon receipt of that approval, the Board is excited to continue to work with APEO's management team, and the wider team at Patria."

For abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust plc

abrdn Holdings Limited

Company Secretary

27 March 2024

 

END