OREANDA-NEWS. LIM Advisors has published a letter to shareholders of Atlantis Japan ("Shareholders"), detailing its concerns in relation to the Fund and the Atlantis Japan Board's (the "Board") lack of action to address those concerns.   The letter is in support of the special resolution to be proposed at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Fund (the "EGM") to reorganise Atlantis Japan so that Shareholders can exit at close to NAV with a possible roll-over opportunity into an open ended vehicle run on similar lines to a sister open ended fund.  The EGM will be held on 3rd May 2016 at Stephenson Harwood LLP, 1 Finsbury Circus, London EC2M 7SH.

LIM Advisors are concerned Shareholders in Atlantis Japan, and have been a supportive investor in the Fund for over five years.  LIM Advisors has published its letter in response to a letter to Shareholders from the Board dated 7 April 2016, which contains the notice of EGM (the "Circular").   LIM Advisors believes the Board has omitted a lot of highly relevant details that LIM Advisors raised with the Board that LIM Advisors believes Shareholders should know before they decide how to vote.

In summary, LIM Advisors' concerns are the following:

·      The Board has not tackled a number of key problems over the last few years concerning the investment advisory team, including: succession planning, an inadequate marketing profile and presence in the UK and weak Net Asset Value ("NAV") performance of the Fund;

·      The performance of Atlantis Japan has been poor over the last 1, 3 and 5 years whereas a sister open ended fund Atlantis Japan Opportunities Fund ("AJOF") has been a top performer;

·      Atlantis Japan has been an unviable size since April 2014 and the Board's growth plans have not worked; and

·      The Fund's discount controls have not worked and the Fund has consistently traded at an unacceptable discount to NAV.

LIM Advisors wrote to Noel Lamb, the Chairman of the Fund, raising these issues on 9 December 2015. Since then it has had two meetings and various correspondence with him and his advisers but unfortunately was dis-satisfied with the answers that it received and with the lack of action.

The Fund belongs to the Shareholders and they need to be fully informed before they vote at the EGM. LIM Advisors asks that Shareholders read its letter carefully to understand its concerns and recommends that Shareholders then vote FOR the resolution if they share its concerns. If Shareholders have already sent in a proxy vote for the EGM and change their mind after reading this letter, they are able to send in a revised proxy vote and LIM Advisors would urge them to do that.  

The solution is to reorganise Atlantis Japan so that Shareholders can exit at close to NAV perhaps in conjunction with a roll-over opportunity to move into an open ended vehicle run on similar lines to AJOF.  The resolution proposed by LIM Advisors would compel the Board to devise such proposals. This should create significantly better results for Shareholders than Atlantis Japan has delivered in recent years.