Activists will declare success this morning after investors overwhelmingly voiced their dissatisfaction with Hipgnosis Songs (SONG ) voting against its continuation and the re-election of the chair, Andrew Sutch, who was already due to step down. 

The chair of the music royalties fund has declared 83.2% of shareholders voted against the continuation of the investment company at the annual general meeting in Notting Hill, West London.

Investors also pushed out Sutch with 71.5% of investors voting against his re-election, despite the fact the chair was already due to relinquesh the reins of the board next year.

This, along with last night’s resignation of two directors from the board,  means the board will undergo an almost complete refresh and will be heralded as a win for activist investors Asset Value Investors and Metage, which both deemed the board unfit. 

However, investors voted to retain Cindy Rampersaud, who joined the board as an independent non-executive last month and will chair the audit and risk management commitee. A total of 86% of shareholders were in favour of the non-executive, who is a chartered accountant and has held senior roles at Virign, Warner Brother and most recently Pearson. 

At the meeting, which had over 50 attendees, shareholders fired questions at Sutch, who was queried on misleading figures and the nature of arrangements with fund manager, Merck Mercuriadis (pictured above).

The subsequent EGM, which would have seen shareholders vote on the proposed £372m sale of song catalogues to a joint venture between its fund manager and Blackstone, will no longer take place. 

...More to follow.