Charter protester takes the stage

BRITISH engineer Charter pushed through a £48m rights issue today despite an angry shareholder taking the podium at a stormy extraordinary general meeting to fire a series of questions over its past finances.

Before being hustled off, Jens Beckvid tried to cite an expert witness report prepared against Charter in a US case settled last month. But his allegations were dismissed as irrelevant by both chairman David Gawler and major shareholders also present at the meeting.

Guinness Peat Group and Sterling Investment Group, which together account for 37% of Charter's shares, also dismissed Beckvid's concerns. Shareholders voted 99% in favour of the rights issue.

The court documents relate to accounting at the Howden US subsidiary and were produced in a case brought by some of Charter's American loan-note holders.