42 2GM Friday March 6 2020 | the times
Business
A row has broken out between James
Benamor and Amigo Holdings after the
founder of the troubled guarantor loans
business claimed the company was
“committing slow-motion suicide”.
Shares in Amigo tumbled by 13¾p, or
34.2 per cent, to 26¾p yesterday after
Mr Benamor, 42, who set up the com-
pany 15 years ago and is its controlling
shareholder with a 60.7 per cent stake,
published allegations critical of the len-
der’s board, which he said had an obli-
gation “to be clear about the company’s
current situation”. Amigo hit back in a
statement to investors claiming that Mr
Benamor’s account “contains several
material inaccuracies and is fundamen-
tally incorrect in a number of respects”.
He made his allegations late on
Wednesday, hours after he abruptly
stepped down from Amigo’s board. Mr
Benamor sent The Times his statement
before he distributed it on social media
but Amigo instructed lawyers at Schil-
lings to try to block reporting of it.
Amigo is Britain’s biggest provider of
guarantor loans. Its products, which
have annual interest rates of 49.9 per
cent, are guaranteed by another indi-
vidual, who is liable if the borrower
misses a repayment.
The lender was valued at £1.3 billion
when it floated at 275p a share in July
2018 and Mr Benamor first stepped
down from its board three months later.
Since then, regulatory scrutiny of the
Ben Martin Senior City Correspondent
Founder says Amigo
‘committing suicide’
sector has sent its shares sharply lower,
leaving its market capitalisation at just
£130 million and knocking the value of
its founder’s stake. Mr Benamor re-
turned to Amigo’s board in December
in a coup that led to the departures of
the lender’s chief executive and chair-
man. He claimed of his decision to re-
sign less than three months later: “I
could not, in good conscience, remain
on a board that is so thoroughly mis-
managing a company that I love.”
He claimed the Financial Ombuds-
man Service informed Amigo in spring
2019 “that they had changed their
stance on irresponsible lending, and
that Amigo should too”. He alleged that
in response Amigo “began refunding
almost all complaints received, but con-
tinued to lend on a virtually unaltered
basis, hoping no one would notice”.
However, the lender said that “while
it is clear that the FOS’s approach
evolved during 2019, it is not the case
that the FOS informed Amigo of a
specific change in its approach during
spring 2019 as Mr Benamor suggests”.
He suggested Amigo should seek a judi-
cial review of the ombudsman’s posi-
tion but the lender said it disagreed
with his analysis. The company also
disputed its founder’s claim that he
voted against its decision to formally
put itself up for sale in January, a pro-
cess that is ongoing.
The ombudsman’s spokesman said it
made decisions “based on what is fair
and reasonable” for each complaint.T
he former boss of the
outsourcer Mitie has been
appointed president of the
British Chambers of Commerce
(Simon Duke writes).
Baroness McGregor-Smith, who
landed the unpaid and largely
ceremonial role yesterday, was
born in India, educated in north
London and became the first Asian
woman to run a FTSE 250
company. She joined Mitie in 2002
and was promoted to chief
executive five years later.
While she was in charge Mitie’s
revenues quadrupled to more than
£2 billion after a slew of takeovers.
She left in 2017, and the latter part
of her tenure was marked by a slide
in its share price after a flurry of
profit warnings.
She was ennobled by David
Cameron in 2015. The following
year she oversaw a review into
developing black and minority
ethnic talent in business for Sajid
Javid, who was business secretary.Business big shotname baroness
mcgregor-smith
age 57
position
president,
british chambers
of commercebanker spins a good deal
from investment in pr firm
Money just seems to stick to senior
Goldman Sachs bankers. Richard
Gnodde, the smooth South African
who heads up the Wall Street
giant’s overseas operation, has made
a tidy profit from the takeover of
the PR outfit Huntsworth. The
London-based banker invested in
the owner of the Citigate agency
several years ago and will pocket
£240,000 from selling his shares.posh burgers on the menu
Trispan, a private equity firm, is
believed to be close to acquiring
Honest Burgers, a chain of 36 posh
burger joints part owned by Active
Partners. Given the recent travails of
the Hand Made Burger Co and
Byron, it is perhaps surprising. Then
again, there will always be winners
and losers in the restaurant sector,
and the evidence suggests that
Honest will be among the winners.
Trispan, which is working on the deal
with Robin Rowland, former chief
executive of Yo! Sushi, is rumored to
be in the middle of raising debt
funding for the transaction.all aboard for women’s day
You wait decades for an all-female
train crew and three arrive at once.
To mark International Women’s
Day this Sunday, three railoperators ran women-only services
yesterday. Southeastern joined
forces with Network Rail to go
women-only on the 7.42am from
Victoria to Faversham, below, while
GWR ran a female crew on a train
from Paddington to Bristol and
LNER ran a “Flying Scotswoman”
from Edinburgh to King’s Cross.put off their food
The effects of the coronavirus
outbreak have even been felt in
eateries across the Square Mile, if
City People’s experience is
anything to go by. The fancy Coq
d’Argent restaurant near Bank was
almost deserted during breakfast
yesterday morning. One member of
staff put the dearth of customers
down to worries about the spread
of Covid-19. I thought the pin-
striped brigade were made of
sterner stuff.CITY PEOPLE
The feuds, the faces and the farcical
Dominic Walsh @walshdominic