A major shareholder of Air Methods (Denver Centennial), Voce Capital Management LLC, has issued a statement criticising the helicopter operator's board, saying that it "lacks [a] credible plan to create stockholder value". The statement further calls the board "over-tenured, under-skilled and mis-aligned" and recommends four members to be nominated to the board.
Voce's strongly-worded criticism comes after a third year of stockholder losses for the medevac specialist. The investment group last year called for yearly elections for Methods' board members, but Voce says that the board has so far failed to put measures in place to do so. Voce's Managing Partner J. Daniel Plants accuses the board of having "no skin in the game", and that their interests do not align with those of stockholders.
Air Methods Corporation's Air Medical Services Division is the largest provider of air medical transport services in the United States. Its tourism division incorporates Sundance Helicopters (Las Vegas Harry Reid) and Blue Hawaiian Helicopters (Kahului) which provide tours and charter flights. According to their statement, Air Methods' fleet consists of around 500 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Among the four candidates put forward by the investment management group is Voce's J. Daniel Plants. Air Methods responded with a statement saying that they will "carefully evaluate Voce's nominees".
