Société de la Tour Eiffel has issued an announcement via its board of directors notifying shareholders that Compagnie MI29 has exceeded the five and ten percent threshold of share capital ownership and voting rights respectively. In the communiqué, the board promised to hold meetings with Chuc Hoang, who controls Compagnie M.I.29 to discuss the issues and Hoang’s possible participation in the management of the group.

STE was the concession owner of the management of the Eiffel Tower between 1979 and 1989. It has since transformed itself into a real estate investment society.

Compagnie MI29 currently owns 128,095 shares directly or indirectly through its entities Eurobail and Fonciére Wilson. It took up a call option in April of this year to acquire a further 530,000 of STE. The new acquisition has brought Compagnie MI29’s potential ownership of share capital and voting rights in STE to 10.77 percent.

Despite these figures vastly exceeding the predetermined thresholds, the STE board has not acted as of yet. Compagnie MI29 has announced that it has no intention of taking over STE, despite its decision to exercise the call option. The company has also announced that it would be pursuing two board seats, but that it has no intention of interfering with STE’s current strategy.

It appears that Hoang will be allowed to retain his current shares, irrespective of the thresholds. STE’s board has met and “renewed its confidence in and support for the group’s management and strategy.” In addition that board has agreed to set up a committee to liaise with Hoang and review a possible future participation at a management level. The committee, which will include two independent directors, will also be acting in the interest of good governance for STE and its other shareholders.

STE’s chairman of the board Mark Inch has confirmed that the company is working with Compagnie MI29 in order to establish a healthy working relationship “The board has renewed its support to the strategy and the management recently put in place and intends to start discussions with Comapgnie MI29,” he said in a statement, However, Inch did not elaborate on how other shareholders might regard Compagnie MI29’s decision to pursue the call option, and how it might affect them. “From a personal standpoint, I confirm my engagement in the company with its management, I still own directly or indirectly close to two percent of the share capital and intend to strengthen my participation in the coming months,” added the chairman.