Lashing the board for its "appalling" behaviour in the "destructive campaign run by directors" of Hunter Hall Global Value to protect their fees, Wilson Asset Management chairman Geoff Wilson failed in his campaign to unseat the board - although he did succeed in removing the chairman.

At a meeting of shareholders of the $300 million fund, Mr Wilson succeeded in removing the chairman, Mr Paul Jensen but failed in replacing two other directors, thanks to the vote at the meeting, since proxies had favoured retaining Mr Jensen.

Mr Wilson has been jousting with the board of the fund since news broke late last year that Peter Hall, the founder of Hunter Hall International, which manages the fund, was planning to quit the group he founded. Mr Hall sold his stake to Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co, selling his initial block of shares at just $1 a share when they were fetching close to $4 in the sharemarket.

With only around $1 billion in funds under management, the publicly listed Hunter Hall Global Value is a key revenue source for Hunter Hall International

During the row with Mr Wilson, Soul Pattinson in particular has invested heavily in the listed fund to prevent Mr Wilson from holding sway over the board, emerging with a 12.6 per cent shareholding, costing more than $30 million.

"Shareholders have endured a destructive campaign run by tdirectors to protect their fees," Mr Wilson told Thursday's meeting. "I believe the behaviour of this board has been appalling."

Mr Wilson claimed the chairman of the fund has made a series of false and misleading comments, as he argued the "board is incompetent".

He admitted that he has engaged privately with the fund for the past four years on a range of measures aimed at improving shareholder returns.

"Unfortunately this board is standing in its way," Mr Wilson said, saying he has been "overwhelmed with the support and assistance" received from shareholders.

"Today, we, the shareholders of [Hunter Hall Global Value], have delivered a strong warning to all listed investment company boards that shareholders must be treated with respect," he said.

Mr Wilson sought the removal of David Groves, Julian Constable and Paul Jensen with his own nominees, Kym Evans, Glenn Burge and Emma Davidson.

In each vote, the incumbent board had the support of around 55 per cent of the shares voted, easily surviving the spill motions.

However in the vote for Mr Jensen, even though proxies ran 54.5 per cent in his favour, including the votes cast at the meeting, the balance swang against him with 52.3 per cent of the overall votes cast in favour of his removal from the board.