Shareholders in Gresham House, the loss-making investment trust sitting on valuable industrial land around Liverpool and Manchester, will over the next few days receive a call from its largest investor to back a resolution to oust four of the company's directors at next Monday's annual general meeting.

In their place Parkwood Property Investments, a 29.9 per cent shareholder in Gresham House, wants to install its three founding partners together with one independent director of their choosing as a prelude to a swift company break-up.

Today's letter from Parkwood being sent out to shareholders and seen by The Times claims "we are concerned about liquidity" and gives warning that operating losses will deteriorate further this year. Parkwood will urge shareholders at next week's meeting to support its no vote on approvement of a final dividend payment, according to sources.

At stake is about £40 million of Gresham's commercial property interests, the main assets of which are 29 acres of land and partly-let buildings around Liverpool's John Lennon airport, newly built but empty premises near Manchester and some land and buildings around the South East.

The company also owns stakes in a myriad of other AIM-listed stocks, some of which are investment trusts which invest in other investment trusts. Those stakes were valued at just over £14 million earlier this week.

Gresham, headed by Freddie Stirling, its septuagenarian executive chairman and one of the largest private shareholders, has proposed to pay a 5p per share dividend worth in total £293,000. The company made a £1 million loss for its financial year ending 31 December and last recorded its net cash at £1.3 million. Interest repayments on its property loans totalled £972,000 last year.

Mr Stirling told shareholders earlier this year that he would sell-off assets over the next five years. Parkwood believes this time-frame is too long and is concerned about the trust's financial viability, telling fellow shareholders in its letter today that it has "no confidence" in the current Gresham board.

Parkwood convened an extraordinary general meeting at the start of January to oust the Gresham board on similar terms as those being put forward today. Two days before that meeting Gresham struck a conditional deal to sell its stake to an unnamed overseas investor, in a settlement agreement that is understood to have been brokered by the Gresham board. That share sale deal has however yet to complete, prompting Parkwood to revive its attempt to lead a shareholder coup.

In September last year Parkwood made an indicative offer to Mr Stirling to buy the whole of Gresham for 875p per share. It is thought that Anglo Irish Bank was lined up for financing the deal. The indicative offer was never put to shareholders. Gresham last valued its net asset value per share - the best way of valuing a property investment company - at 837.9p. Gresham shares today were unchanged at 460p.

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