Confectionary company Yowie has become the unlikely epicentre of a high-stakes feud between investor Nick Bolton and his former activist vehicle Keybridge Capital, which kicked him out and has now complained to the Takeovers Panel over Yowie’s plans to issue $500,000 in new shares.

Bolton is the chief executive of the $3 million ASX-listed company, whose colourful eponymous chocolates once lined supermarket checkout shelves. On Monday, it said it would issue 34.4 million new shares, in what Bolton’s detractors labelled a thinly veiled measure to retain control of the company.