RBG: Ousted founder filed winding up petition against troubled listed law firm
The freshly ousted founder of listed legal business RBG Holding has filed a winding up petition to the High Court against the group.
As seen by City AM, the High Court claim system noted that Ian Rosenblatt is the petitioner of a winding up application against RBG Holding, filed on Monday.
Rosenblatt enlisted law firm Stephenson Harwood to file the legal action.
A winding-up petition is a formal legal process used against a company that owes money and is unable to pay its debts.
This comes after the group made headlines on Wednesday after it terminated its consultancy agreement with Rosenblatt, over allegations of “offensive behaviour unbecoming of a solicitor and consultant to RBG Holdings”.
Rosenblatt, who was made an OBE in 2016, founded Rosenblatt Solicitors in 1989.
He grew the City law firm into the Rosenblatt Group, which went on to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, becoming the fourth English law firm at the time to go public.
The group has been going through a tough time as over the last year, with its share price fallen by nearly 90 per cent.
Back in December, shareholders were notified by the board that it received a request by Rosenblatt to hold a general meeting to consider the removal of the chief executive and two current non-executive directors.
Rosenblatt had been demanding the removal of chief executive Jon Divers, who joined the company in 2022, since October.
However, the board removed him from the group on Wednesday.
Within the fiery notice to the London Stock Exchange, the board detailed a range of allegations against Rosenblatt, including that he was “verbally abusive” to a “potential funder” at a meeting over potential refinancing arrangement in 2023.
Rosenblatt hit back at the board calling them liars and stating that “each individual member of the Board are now susceptible to legal proceedings, in libel amongst other things.”
The details of what the winding up petition is about is now yet known.
Following the news revealed on Wednesday, the group’s shares plummeted to its lowest ever level today, dropping 54 per cent to 1.21 pence per share on Wednesday afternoon.
City AM approached Rosenblatt and RBG for comments. Rosenblatt declined to comment.