Fund manager Thomas Lloyd Group has continued with its proposal to remove the directors of the ThomasLloyd Energy Impact trust, requiring the board to set a date for another general meeting.

The investment manager of £183m ThomasLloyd Energy Impact Trust (TLEI ) called for the removal of the four current directors - chair Sue Inglis and the other non-executives Mukesh Rajani, Kristine Damkjaer and Clifford Tompsett - on 11 August.

The board members were re-elected at the annual general meeting on 30 June this year, with over 97% casting in their favour.

However, Zurich-based Thomas Lloyd, which owns 15% of the trust’s shares directly and through affiliates, has claimed the board did not act in the shareholders best interest when they suspended the investment trust’s shares in April. The board also called on shareholders to vote against the trust’s continuation following the discovery of massive cost over-runs at its solar power construction project in India, which was subsequently abandoned.

The continuation vote was held at the end of August and 58% of shareholders voted to discontinue the investment company.

Following the meeting the board wrote to the investment manager requesting it to withdraw the requisition calling for their the removal, which it refused to do.

A second general meeting to vote on the proposals will take place on 25 September.

Thomas Lloyd’s second requisition also proposes the appointment of Sarah Day, Russell Downs, Martyn Everett and Christian Yates.

Yates, who would be chair, is currently chair of Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT2 (GV20 ) and a non-executive director of Echo Energy (ECHO). Downs and Everett are ‘turnaround professionals’ and Day is an accountant.

In the statement the current board directors said their removal would be ‘highly disruptive’ and lead to ‘further delays’ as it continues to assess the company’s future.

Following the continuation vote the board is looking at possibilities for TLEI’s future, which include a relaunch under a new manager.

The statement went on to say the board had begun and was ‘fully engaged’ in reviewing options for the company. It also said it was making ‘good progress’ on the re-evaluation of the project in India, finalising valuations, producing reports and lifting the suspension of the companies shares.

Inglis commented: “The current board is fully committed and determined to oversee the ongoing processes required to deliver the best possible future for the company’.

She said it was in the interest of the shareholders to ‘act in a unified manner’ and vote against the resolutions.