(Alliance News) - Amigo Holdings PLC on Thursday said it has received a general meeting requisition notice from Richmond Group Ltd for appointing James Benamor as a director of the company.
The notice also proposes removal of Chief Financial Officer Nayan Kisnadwala, Interim Chair Roger Lovering and Chief Executive Glen Crawford as directors of Amigo and certain resolutions in relation to Amigo's unit Amigo Loans Ltd, the sub-prime lender noted.
Amigo said it is consulting with its advisors in relation to these resolutions.
On Friday last week, the Financial Times newspaper had reported that Benamor, founder of Amigo, was seeking to return as chief executive despite having recently offloaded much of his majority holding in the company.
In a Friday blog post, the FT said: "Benamor said he wanted to return to the company to lead an international expansion while fighting what he described as 'unethical' UK authorities."
Under Benamor's plan, the FT reported, incumbent Chief Executive Glen Crawford would keep control of Amigo's UK-regulated Amigo Loans Ltd subsidiary, focusing on cost cutting and shrinking debt, as well as embarking on a judicial view of the Financial Ombudsman Service's handling of customer complaints.
In April, majority owner Richmond Group Ltd's Benamor had called for the sub-prime lender's entire board to be ousted after saying the company is "committing slow motion suicide", but shareholders rejected Benamor's resolutions.
Amigo and Benamor settled their dispute in June, with Benamor deciding to sell his entire 61% stake in the company.
On Monday, Amigo hit back at Benamor, saying that he should not waste time or money in his bid to return.
The company had said that while it agrees it continues to face significant challenges to its ongoing operations, it believes that the reappointment of Crawford as CEO is a critical step for the business in navigating through its issues and returning the company to full health as quickly as possible.
In July, Bournemouth, England-based Amigo had said Crawford would return to the role of chief effective from August, a position he held from February 2016 but left in April 2019 in order to undertake medical treatment.
Shares in Amigo closed 3.7% lower at 12.00 pence each in London Thursday. Year-to-date the stock has shed 82% in value.
For its financial year ended March 31, Amigo posted revenue of GBP294.2 million, up 8.7% from GBP270.7 million recorded the year prior. However, pretax loss was GBP37.9 million swinging from a profit of GBP111.0 million. Net loan book was GBP643.1 million, down 9.1% from GBP707.6 million.
The deterioration in its financials was driven by an increase in complaint volumes, resulting in a complaints cost of GBP126.8 million compared to a cost of GBP100,000 in financial 2019. The company has set aside a complaints provision of GBP117.5 million to handle complaints compared to no provision as at the end of financial 2019.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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Amigo (AMGO)