Speedy Hire set for shareholder showdown

SPEEDY Hire has confirmed its controversial executive chairman will step down in September but is urging for a vote against resolutions put forward by its largest shareholder.

The Merseyside-based building equipment supplier was last month forced to call an extraordinary general meeting by shareholder Toscafund Asset Management to discuss the removal of its executive chairman Jan Åstrand.

Toscafund published an open letter to Speedy Hire earlier this week, reiterating its call for Åstrand to resign and pushing for him to do so ahead of the general meeting it had forced.

Martin Hughes, Toscafund’s chief executive, said in a letter to Astrand: “We believe that it would be in shareholders’ best interests if you were to resign ahead of the meeting to save both time and expense.

“You will by now be aware of the significant shareholder discontent about your track record at Speedy Hire, both in terms of governance and shareholder value creation.”

The company has set the date of the general meeting as September 9.

It has also confirmed that Åstrand will step down as executive chairman and revert to a non-executive chairman role on September 30, the end of its half year, a move it said was “always intended following the stabilisation of the business and strengthening of the board”.

Speedy has, however, refused to bow to sustained pressure from Toscafund to merge with rival listed firm HSS, in which Toscafund is the second largest shareholder.

“The independent board unanimously and strongly recommends that shareholders vote AGAINST the resolutions,” it said in a stock market statement.

It added: “…contrary to the view of Toscafund, it would not be in the best interests of all shareholders to seek a combination with HSS at this time.”

It added that the company’s recovery plan, which it emphasised had been developed and implemented by Åstrand and chief executive Russell Down, has stabilised the business and that revenue is now growing and that the four months to the end of July, total pre-disposal revenue is ahead of the prior year on a like-for-like basis.

Toscafund’s Hughes is also known as “the Rottweiler” because of his aggressive approach to investing. The hedge fund manager has been growing increasingly frustrated at Speedy’s performance and management – the company’s share price has fallen by more than a third over the past year after a series of profit warnings.

Hughes is unhappy that Astrand appointed himself executive chairman after a stint as chief executive, a move he said was in effect in breach of the corporate governance code.

Last month Speedy Hire upgraded its full-year results forecasts after a decent start to the year, but it has had a long run of profit warnings and boardroom departures.

In May the company announced it was continuing to struggle with exceptional costs wiping out profits and plunging it into a £57.6m loss.