humm Group founding director Andrew Abercrombie yesterday implored shareholders to stand by the strife-torn company following the resignation of the five other members of the board.
In a joint statement filed to the ASX on Wednesday morning, company chair Christine Christian and directors John Wylie, Alistair Muir, Carole Campbell and Rajeev Dhawan said they could not remain on the board with Abercrombie because of the turmoil preceding the termination, late last week, of the deal to sell humm’s consumer finance arm to Latitude Financial.
The resignations of Wylie and Muir took effect on Wednesday, while Christian, Campbell and Dhawan will depart once new directors are appointed.
Hours before she signalled her departure, Christian directed another spray at Abercrombie who was the only board member opposed to the Latitude deal.
In an open letter to shareholders, Christian panned Abercrombie for his campaign against the sale agreement and repeated previous claims that he published “false and misleading” information about the abandoned transaction.
“Andrew Abercrombie undertook a strident campaign against the proposed sale, strongly encouraging shareholders to vote against the transaction,” Christian told shareholders.
“Much of the commentary he published was emotion-driven, inflammatory, and provided little clarity on what precise future strategy he envisages for HCF, or on what basis he believed Latitude were going to pay more for HCF.
“There is still essentially no clarity on the future strategy he envisages for HCF.
“Some of the information he published was false and misleading, which we instructed him to take down from his website.”
Abercrombie was comparatively circumspect in a statement issued after the mass resignations.
In a statement circulated by his public relations firm, Abercrombie welcomed the departures, saying it gave the company a chance to make a fresh start.
“I believe it is in the best interest of all humm shareholders,” he said.
“The decision gives humm an opportunity to start afresh.
“The hard work of rebuilding humm starts now and I look forward to being part of that renewal.
“As I have said all along, I believe humm is a great business with plenty of potential.
“We are well capitalised and I believe positioned for future growth to ensure on-going success.”
Some investors might take issue with Abercrombie’s claim that humm is adequately capitalised in the current environment.
The sharp fall in the company’s share price since the Latitude deal began teetering has triggered concern that the company might be challenged to comply with its loan covenants with funders that include Citibank.
That has fuelled speculation that humm might need to undertake a capital raising.
It was not clear last night how new directors would be appointed to the board without a special shareholders’ meeting being called.
The composition of humm’s share register has undergone significant change in the last two months, with Abercrombie boosting his interest to more than 24 per cent of the issue stock.
However, several of humm’s competitors in the finance market have also surfaced on the register, including Resimac and the Thorn Group.
With the dust just beginning to settle on the board feud, it is not yet clear whether Resimac and Thorn will be looking to