Voxtur seeks more transparency from dissident investors

North American mortgage technology firm Voxtur Analytics alleged Tuesday that a dissident investor group backing a new slate of board nominees hasn't provided transparency required by Canadian law.

The company is calling for Nicholas Smith, RPC Ventures I Fund LP, and "unnamed associates who form the Voxtur Shareholders for 'Accountability'" to file all required information statements. 

Only RPC, a Rice Park Capital Management fund, had filed one at deadline, Voxtur said.

Smith is Voxtur's former chairman, and the founder, managing partner and CEO of Rice Park. He also is being nominated to Voxtur's board by VSA, which holds 19.3% of common shares and criticizes current leadership for lacking U.S. mortgage expertise.

Other VSA nominees are: Al Qureshi, president of Blue Water Financial Technologies; Chris Bixby, chairman of Candor Technology's board, industry veteran Jeffrey Hilligoss, settlement services technology expert Chad Neel, and Thomas Holthus, a creditors' rights attorney.

Voxtur shareholders face an imminent deadline to vote on these nominees by 9 a.m. Eastern Wednesday at the latest, according to VSA, which indicated it's looking to reconstitute the company's board at a special meeting set for early Friday morning.

Voxtur said it wants to determine whether the company's former CEO, attorney Jim Albertelli, also is involved behind the scenes in VSA. Albertelli stepped down from his role at Voxtur in April 2023.

NMN had not received any responses from named representatives of the investor group at deadline. Albertelli said in a LinkedIn message sent in response to an inquiry that he "supports the group led by Nick Smith" as an investor but that he "did not organize the effort."

He added he does not personally oppose chairman and interim CEO Gary Yeoman, but has been concerned about the company's financial struggles and the fact that "expense reductions touted by management came predominantly with the sale of revenue generating businesses."

Voxtur took a 5.73 million net loss in Canadian dollars in the first quarter, and it's been trading as a penny stock in the over-the-counter market. However, its year-over-year numbers did improve in some cases and it beat analysts' consensus estimates for the period, according to Google Finance.

Albertelli says he faced criticism for his support of the company's venture into U.S. title insurance alternatives while at Voxtur and after. He added that he wanted to clarify some things about the somewhat controversial strategy, because it is not well understood.

These insurance alternatives, which are known as attorney opinion letters, have been backed by the Biden administration as a way to safely cut high housing costs but they are opposed by title insurers who say the practice is a less effective way to protect properties from ownership challenges.

"People have cast aspersions on my character regarding my potential engagement in AOL," Albertelli wrote. "I want to be clear: a) that I (and any lawyer) not Voxtur can execute an attorney opinion letter; b) that Voxtur was left with AOL technology it owns (that it can use or not use) and some it does not own (that it can license or not license); and, c) that Voxtur can be a technology solution in the space if it so chooses, but in almost 18 months since I have been gone Voxtur has done nothing material."

"A-B-C are facts. I did not influence or stop or compete with Voxtur to prevent its execution or to choose its path," Albertelli added.

Yeoman said in a statement that he's confident in the company's business plan and financials.

"The business operations of Voxtur are completely transparent. Voxtur's recent earnings reports fully show a company that is moving from strength to strength, one that serves our shareholders well and is in full compliance with securities laws," he said in an email.