Activist Bramson makes fresh move to join Electra board

* Bramson seeks place on Electra (Tel Aviv: ELTR.TA - news) board

* Has increased stake since failed attempt last year

* Electra says wants to retain its independence (Adds Sherborne response)

By Sinead Cruise and Emiliano Mellino

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Rebel investor Edward Bramson is making a renewed attempt to shake up the management of Electra Private Equity, less than a year after he lost a shareholder vote to join its board.

Electra said on Friday that Bramson's Sherborne Investors had requested a vote on proposals to appoint the New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) York-based activist and Sherborne nominee Ian Brindle, former UK chairman of PWC, to its six-member board.

The request reignites a long-running dispute between the owner of restaurant chain TGI Fridays and Park Resorts, and its largest shareholder over issues of performance, governance and its relationship with Electra Partners, the firm contracted to manage its investments.

Bramson attempted to secure a seat on the board last October, but only around 11 percent of independent Electra investors backed his proposals.

Bramson had control of around 20 percent of Electra's shares at that time but the veteran investor, who has already succeeded in boosting shareholder returns at F&C Asset Management, has since increased his stake to around 30 percent, prompting speculation of a much tighter contest this time around.

Electra said that Bramson considered "a number of its portfolio companies to be undervalued as a result of operational deficiencies" yet had so far failed to explain how he thought Electra could improve their performance.

For its part, Sherborne said it had had several meetings and exchanges to outline its ideas for increasing shareholder value but performance remained unimpressive.

ELECTRA OPPOSITION

Electra said its board unanimously opposed Bramson's proposals and believed the interests of all investors were best served by a board that was wholly independent of any shareholder.

"In our view this outweighs the argument that Sherborne should have board representation simply because it is a large shareholder," Electra said, quoting a letter signed by Chairman Roger Yates which was sent to Bramson on August 12.

Yates also dismissed Bramson's claim that Electra needed "an operating turnaround" either at the board level or within individual portfolio companies.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Electra were trading 0.3 percent higher at 1235 GMT compared with a 1.4 percent fall in the FTSE All Share index.

Analysts at Jefferies had sympathy with Electra's resistance to Bramson's proposals, given a lack of clarity over the direction the new directors would seek to take the company and the possible influence on its stalwart management team.

Electra's Managing Partner Hugh Mumford is due to mark his 34th year in charge of the company's investment strategy later this month, and is Britain's longest-serving investment company manager, according to the Association of Investment Companies.

"This uncertainty continues to weigh on Electra's discount, of currently 11 percent (to Net Asset Value)," Jefferies said in a note to clients.

"The 'low-hanging fruit' of improving Electra's capital structure, management fee, and distribution policy have now been plucked and so the likely path of further action by a revised Board is much less clear."

Over 10 years, Electra has delivered a 210 percent total return to shareholders, compared with a 79 percent return for the FTSE All-share and 184 percent for the FTSE 250 . (Additional reporting by Freya Berry; Editing by Simon Jessop and Keith Weir)