Johnston Press said it has been advised that the requisition notice it received on November 6 from major Johnston shareholder Custos Group AS for a general meeting of the company’s shareholders is invalid and it has informed Custos accordingly.

“In the event that the board receives a valid requisition request, the board will put the proposed
resolution(s) to shareholders,” said Johnston Press, which owns The Scotsman, The i newspaper and about 200 local titles.

Custos is run by Norwegian activist investor Christen Ager-Hanssen, who wants Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond to become chairman of Johnston Press and to make other changes.

Johnston Press said the requisition had proposed resolutions that Camilla Rhodes and Michael Butterworth be removed as directors of the company and that Alex Salmond and news industry veteran Steve Auckland be appointed as non-executive directors of the company.

The requisition also proposed that any person appointed as a director of the company since November 6 be removed as a director of the company.