Cenkos founder leaves board as stockbroker grapples with activist investor
Cenkos Securities has announced that a founding shareholder has left the company’s board amid pressure from an activist investor, on the same day the stockbroker announced an interim loss.
Paul Hodges, Cenkos’ head of equity capital markets, and natural resources head Joe Nally stepped down from the board today, the company said. Both men will remain on the company’s executive committee.
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Cenkos swung to a £200,000 pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, results released today revealed. This was down from a profit of £500,000 for the same period a year before.
Chief executive Jim Durkin said the company had had a “weak first half”.
The London-listed stockbroker said the changes to the board would leave Cenkos with a majority of non-executive directors, bringing it “into line with current regulatory and good corporate governance practices”.
“The Board is enormously grateful to both Paul and Joe for the significant contribution they have each made to the development and success of Cenkos,” said acting chairman Jeff Hewitt.
Crystal Amber, an activist fund which is Cenkos’ fifth biggest shareholder, has been putting pressure on the shareholder to overhaul its leadership.
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The head of Crystal Amber had criticised Cenkos’ board as “totally indecisive” in a letter to Hewitt in June.
Cenkos’ shares closed up 8.99 per cent on Wednesday at 48.5p.
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