Amigo boss rejects proposal from founder Benamor
By Sean Farrell
Date: Monday 24 Aug 2020
(Sharecast News) - Amigo Holdings Chief Executive Glen Crawford has said he will not work with the company's founder, James Benamor, rejecting a proposal made by Benamor at the weekend.
In a blog post on Friday evening Benamor said he wanted to return to the troubled subprime lender as CEO to lead an international expansion with Crawford staying on to run the UK business. He made the proposal just two months after losing a battle with the company's board and selling most of his majority stake.
Crawford rejoined Amigo as CEO on 1 August. He ran the business for three years before stepping down for medical reasons in April 2019.
Amigo shares fell 23% to 13.73p at 08:20 BST.
The company said: "Mr Crawford has made it clear to the board that he is not prepared to work with Amigo in any circumstances where Mr Benamor returns to Amigo's governance structure in a position of influence." It said Crawford's decision to return was based on Benamor's statement that he was selling his entire stake in the company.
Amigo said if Benamor called a shareholder meeting and gained shareholder approval for his proposal Crawford would be free to leave his job immediately.
"The board is strongly of the view that such an outcome would be materially detrimental to the interests of the company and its shareholders taken as a whole," Amigo said. "Mr Crawford and the board are therefore equally aligned in their unanimous rejection of the views and proposals put forward by Mr Benamor on Friday evening."
Amigo, which makes loans to people with poor credit histories guaranteed by family or friends, has been hit by a surge in customer complaints. It abandoned a plan to sell itself in June the cost of clearing a backlog of grievances would be at least £35m. Later that month, it warned of a "material" hit to results following a big increase in complaints.
The company has also been involved in a series of battles with Benamor. On Monday Amigo told Benamor to stop wasting time and money for the company and himself and to scrap any plan to hold a shareholder vote.
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