25th Mar 2019 07:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Provident Financial PLC again Monday reiterated its belief that Non-Standard Finance PLC's offer for the firm is "strategically and financially flawed".
Provident, an unsecured sub-prime lender, has on several previous occasions criticised the GBP1.3 billion hostile offer, made in February. Under the offer, Provident shareholders will receive 8.88 new Non-Standard Finance shares for each Provident share held.
Publishing its formal response document on Monday, Provident said it is currently meeting all of its objectives, while recent financial results show how much progress has been made.
Provident earlier in March posted annual results, swinging to a profit and also paying a dividend once again.
Chair Patrick Snowball commented: "The Provident board believes Non-Standard Finance's hostile offer represents an irresponsible approach in the context of a regulated business which is emerging from a period of substantial instability."
"As such, the offer would have a negative and destabilising impact on Provident stakeholders, including its customers, for a considerable period of time. The Provident board believes the offer would be value destructive and the arguments put forward by Non-Standard Finance do not take into account the significant operational progress made by Provident's management team.
"Accordingly, the Provident board unanimously believes the offer is not in the best interests of Provident shareholders or customers and should be firmly rejected," he continued.
Provident, in a separate announcement Monday, also said Neil Chandler will be joining its credit card business Vanquis Bank from mid-April as managing director.
Chandler was most recently chief executive of Shop Direct Financial Services, and he also formerly headed up Sainsbury's Bank.
Robert East has been appointed the chair of Vanquis Bank, and he will be joining Provident's board as a non-executive director, effective from the start of April. East has previously had several senior roles at Barclays PLC.
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