Greywood Investments, the largest shareholder of Canadian gaming and esports company Enthusiast Gaming, has publicly targeted the organisation’s leadership, urging its CEO Adrian Montgomery to step down.
Greywood, which owns 9.3 percent of Enthusiast Gaming, created a website named ‘Upgrade EGLX’ to publish texts in which the shareholder expresses its discontent with the current Enthusiast Gaming management. In particular, Greywood highlights data like the drop of stock value by the holding from ‘$8.64 (~£6,90) on April 20th, 2021, to $2.10 (~£1,68) per share on May 23rd, 2022.
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In statements published on the ‘Upgrade EGLX’ website, the main target by Greywood has been Montgomery and the company’s board of directors. On May 25th, Greywood suggested a list of names to stand for election to be a part of Enthusiast’s board at the company’s next annual meeting of shareholders.
Following the public statement, Enthusiast Gaming defended itself in a press release issued on May 24th. The company accused Greywood of being “an investment vehicle that lacks transparency and seeks to take full control of Enthusiast Gaming’s Board without paying shareholders a control premium.” The company also shared positive financial results like a Q1 2022 revenue of $47.2m (~£29.3m), which is an increase of 57 percent year-over-year.
Greywood’s announcement occur a couple of months after Enthusiast reported a $41.6m (~£33m) loss in 2021.
RELATED: Upcomer lays off multiple writing staff
Enthusiast Gaming is the owner of Luminosity Gaming, Call of Duty League franchise Seattle Surge and Overwatch League franchise Vancouver Titans. It also operates a number of gaming websites, including Upcomer, which recently made headlines due to a layoff of writing staff.
Esports Insider says: On one side we see a shareholder creating a website meant to mine its own investments’ management. On the other we see a holding saying its biggest investor ‘lacks transparency’. It only shows that the two sides can be both right and wrong at the same time. Either way, this is a rare public dispute by an esports organisation and its investor that does highlight some issues within the company.