AGM Information • Sep 11, 2020
AGM Information
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THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT ACTION TO TAKE, YOU SHOULD CONSULT YOUR STOCKBROKER, SOLICITOR, ACCOUNTANT OR OTHER APPROPRIATE INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL ADVISOR AUTHORISED UNDER THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS ACT 2000 (AS AMENDED) WHO SPECIALISES IN ADVISING IN CONNECTION WITH SHARES AND OTHER SECURITIES. IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UK, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY CONSULT AN APPROPRIATELY AUTHORISED INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISOR.
If you have sold or otherwise transferred all your shares in Amigo Holdings PLC (the "Company") please forward this document to the person through whom the sale or transfer was effected, for transmission to the purchaser or transferee.
To be held at
on
Notice of the General Meeting of the Company which has been convened for Tuesday 29 September 2020 at Nova, 118-128 Commercial Road, Bournemouth, England, BH2 5LT at 10.45am (United Kingdom time) or as soon thereafter as the Company's Annual General Meeting (which has been convened at 10.30am on the same day at the same location) has been concluded or adjourned (the "General Meeting"), is set out on page 10 of this document. All references to time in this document shall be to the relevant time in the United Kingdom.
We regret that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it will not be possible for shareholders to attend the General Meeting in person. Shareholders will be able to listen to and view the General Meeting via webcast. Details of the webcast will be made available on the Company's website (www.amigoplc.com/investors).
Shareholders will not be able to ask questions via the webcast but instead can submit questions to the Board in advance of the General Meeting by emailing [email protected] by no later than 10.45am on Friday 25 September 2020. Please include your full name and investor code (IVC number). All questions received will be considered and, where appropriate, answered either ahead of or at the General Meeting.
Please register your proxy vote electronically as soon as possible and, in any event, no later than 10.45am on Sunday 27 September 2020. You can register your proxy vote electronically, either at www.signalshares.com or, if you are a CREST member, by using the service provided by Euroclear. If you hold your shares through a broker or nominee, you will need to ask your broker or nominee to submit your proxy on your behalf. Further details are given in the Additional Information section commencing on page 11.
| Why have I received this Notice? | The Board is required to call a general meeting of the Company following a requisition made by Richmond Group Limited ("RGL"), a Shareholder holding around 9.99% of the Company's shares at the time the requisition was made. |
|---|---|
| It should be noted that at the Latest Practicable Date (defined below), RGL no longer holds a notifiable interest (3% or more of the Company's issued share capital) in the Company and, at the time of the General Meeting, it has indicated that it will hold no shares in the Company. |
|
| The General Meeting will be held at 10.45am on Tuesday 29 September 2020 at Nova, 118-128 Commercial Road, Bournemouth, England, BH2 5LT, or as soon thereafter as the Company's Annual General Meeting (which has been convened at 10.30am on the same day at the same location) has been concluded or adjourned. |
|
| What is the meeting about? | The General Meeting is required to consider the Resolutions proposed by RGL to: |
| (i) appoint James Benamor as a director of Amigo Holdings PLC and remove each of Nayan Kisnadwala and Roger Lovering as directors of Amigo Holdings PLC; and |
|
| (ii) appoint each of Glen Crawford, Gary Jennison, Richard Price and Jonathan Roe as directors of Amigo Loans Ltd. |
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| What is the Board recommending? | The Board unanimously recommends that Shareholders VOTE AGAINST all of the Resolutions. |
| Why should I vote against the Resolutions? |
• If the Resolutions are passed, the Company will have no Executive Directors and, in summary, the following positions will be vacant: |
| Position | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| Chair | Vacant (pending FCA approval of Jonathan Roe*) |
|
| Senior Independent Director | Vacant | |
| Chair of the Risk Committee | Vacant (pending FCA approval of Gary Jennison*) |
|
| Chair of the Nomination Committee |
Vacant (pending FCA approval of Jonathan Roe*) |
|
| CEO | Vacant (the CEO designate, Glen Crawford* will resign immediately and Mr. Benamor will not be automatically appointed) |
|
| CFO | Vacant |
* Formal applications have been made to the FCA for Glen Crawford, Jonathan Roe and Gary Jennison to take up the indicated roles. As part of this process each of these individuals has been certified by the Board to the FCA as being a fit and proper person for his proposed role. However, there is no certainty regarding the timing of FCA approval of any individual to take-up a given role, or indeed if final FCA approval will be received.
| events may happen; and | FCA approves of his appointment. Neither of these | |
|---|---|---|
| – not be given. |
regulatory approval from the FCA is required before RGL can purchase more than 20% of the Company's shares and become a "controller". This approval may |
|
| How do I vote? | meeting in person. | You can vote on all Resolutions in advance of the General Meeting by registering your proxy vote electronically at www.signalshares.com. If you need a hard copy form of proxy, please contact Link Asset Services, our registrar. See page 9 for more details. In each case, you should appoint the Chair of the meeting as your proxy as you, or any other proxy you may choose to appoint, will be unable to attend the |
| What is the timetable? | Date of receipt of Requisition Notice |
Thursday 27 August 2020 |
| Date of this Notice | Friday 11 September 2020 | |
| Latest time and date for the submission by Shareholders of questions by emailing [email protected] |
10.45am on Friday 25 September 2020 |
|
| Latest time and date of receipt of forms of proxy from Shareholders |
10.45am on Sunday 27 September 2020 |
|
| Time and date of requisitioned General Meeting |
10.45am on Tuesday 29 September 2020 or as soon thereafter as the Company's Annual General Meeting (which has been convened at 10.30am on the same day at the same location) has been concluded or adjourned |
|
| Results of General Meeting | 11.30am on Tuesday 29 September 2020 or as soon as |
practicable thereafter
(Incorporated in England and Wales with Registered No. 10024479)
Registered office: Nova, 118-128 Commercial Road, Bournemouth, England, BH2 5LT
11 September 2020
Dear Shareholder,
On 27 August 2020, the Board of Amigo Holdings PLC received a Requisition Notice from Richmond Group Limited ("RGL"), requiring the Board to convene a General Meeting of Amigo Holdings PLC (the "Company") for the purpose of considering resolutions to appoint James Benamor as a director of the Company, the removal of certain directors (including Glen Crawford) and the appointment of a number of directors to one of the Company's regulated subsidiaries Amigo Loans Ltd ("Amigo Loans"). The resolution to remove Glen Crawford as a director of the Company was subsequently withdrawn by RGL on 28 August 2020.
The Board is required, as a matter of company law, to convene a General Meeting following requisition notices received from shareholders holding more than 5% of the Company's share capital. On the date the Requisition Notice was submitted, RGL disclosed that it was holder of 47,485,842 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 9.99% of the total voting rights of all members. Please note that the resolutions in the Requisition Notice were not identical to those Mr. Benamor posted on social media, however it is only the ones in the Requisition Notice provided by RGL to the Company that you are able to vote on.
At the Latest Practicable Date, RGL no longer holds a notifiable interest (3% or more of the Company's issued share capital) in the Company and at the time of the General Meeting it has indicated that it will hold no shares in the Company.
It is a requirement under the Companies Act 2006 that the Board calls a General Meeting within 21 days of the date of the Requisition Notice. The formal Notice of the General Meeting is set out on page 10 of this document.
The resolutions proposed by RGL are:
The purpose of this letter is to explain the impact that the actions of RGL will have on the Company, why the Board strongly recommends that you should VOTE AGAINST all Resolutions, and the action you need to take to vote.
RGL has not provided a statement to be circulated with this Notice outlining its position or explaining why the Resolutions have been proposed.
The Board is disappointed that RGL has felt the need to requisition the General Meeting particularly in light of the recent changes to the Board, which has seen the successful re-hiring of Glen Crawford as CEO (subject to FCA approval), and the hiring of Jonathan Roe, as Chair of the Board and Chair of the Nomination Committee (both positions also subject to FCA approval), and Gary Jennison as an additional independent non-executive director (who will, subject to FCA approval, be appointed the Chair of the Risk Committee). The Board has spent a considerable amount of time, effort and resources over the past few months to build a team to stabilise Amigo and ensure it is best placed to navigate the issues it currently faces and take the business forward.
The Directors believe that the Resolutions are not in the best interests of the Shareholders as a whole. The Board therefore strongly recommends that the Shareholders vote against the Resolutions. In particular, the Board believes that a vote in favour of the Resolutions would have the following negative consequences:
If the Resolutions are passed, the Company will likely find itself in a position where it has no Chair, no Senior Independent Director, no Chair of the Risk Committee, no Chair of the Nomination Committee and no CFO (in addition there will be no CEO in the event that Glen Crawford does not take up his position (see paragraph 2 below)).
The Company is currently facing a number of urgent and time critical customer issues, including: (i) resolving a backlog of complaints; (ii) uncertainty regarding future complaint volumes; (iii) an investigation by the FCA into the Group's affordability practices since 1 November 2018; and (iv) the ending (at the end of October 2020) of the Covid-19 payment holidays granted to around 47,000 customers.
All of these issues are against the background of an anticipated rapid increase in the rate of unemployment as the Government's furlough scheme comes to an end in October 2020 and which may impact Amigo's customers. Each of these issues is extremely serious; collectively they are capable of impacting the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. For these reasons, any unnecessary changes to the Board at this critical and unprecedented time are not in the best interests of the Company or its Shareholders as a whole and may be disruptive and damaging to the Company and its stability and ability to focus on the current key challenges facing the business and to take the business forward.
In parallel, the Board and the senior management team are focused on recommencing lending, developing the Group's strategy and seeking out new business opportunities, all with the aim of maintaining and advancing the Group's position as the leading provider of guarantor loans in the UK. The Board is focused on the future of the business and is looking forward to engaging with its new and diverse shareholder base as it commences the next chapter in its development.
The Requisition Notice provides an unnecessary distraction to the Board and the senior management team and diverts the Board and senior management from progressing with these activities. If the Resolutions are passed they will create considerable uncertainty and destabilise the Company.
On 8 July 2020, the Board was pleased to announce that Glen Crawford had agreed to return to Amigo as CEO (subject to FCA regulatory approval). The Board believes that the reappointment of Glen Crawford is a critical step for the business in navigating through the issues faced and returning Amigo to full health as quickly as possible.
Glen Crawford has notified the Board that he is not prepared to work with Amigo in any circumstances where Mr. Benamor returns to Amigo's Board. Glen Crawford and the Board have already agreed that his resignation will take effect immediately in the event that the Resolution to appoint Mr. Benamor to the Board is passed.
The Board is strongly of the view that such an outcome would be materially detrimental to the interests of the Company and its Shareholders taken as a whole. Glen Crawford has extensive experience of the Company and a deep understanding of its business, having been appointed CEO of the Company in February 2016 and of Amigo Loans Ltd and Amigo Management Services Ltd in October 2015. During his period as CEO of Amigo, Glen Crawford secured full FCA authorisation for the business and then led it through a period of significant growth and oversaw the IPO of the business in July 2018.
If Glen Crawford does not take up the position of CEO, Amigo will continue to have no CEO and will lose an individual who is uniquely qualified to lead the Company through the challenges it currently faces. Mr. Benamor's comments on social media appear to support the Board's view that Glen Crawford's appointment is critical to the success of the business and Mr. Benamor's own proposals for the future direction of the business appear to rely on Glen Crawford remaining with the Group and being appointed to the board of Amigo Loans. Although we understand from social media statements made by Mr. Benamor that he intends to be become CEO of Amigo Holdings PLC, for the reasons outlined further below, this may not be achievable.
In the event that the resolution to appoint Mr. Benamor to the Board of Amigo Holdings PLC is passed, Mr. Benamor can only join the Board as a non-executive director. Under the current regulatory framework of the Group, as approved by the FCA, Mr. Benamor cannot be appointed to the role of CEO, without, (i) the approval by the Board of the Company; and (ii) the approval of the FCA, even if the resolution to appoint him as a director is passed.
As matters currently stand, all directors of Amigo Holdings PLC are approved by the FCA before they can perform a regulated role. Currently Amigo Holdings PLC has two non-executive directors, Jonathan Roe, Chair and Nomination Committee Chair designate, and Gary Jennison, Risk Committee Chair designate, who are waiting for FCA approval prior to taking up their regulated roles. Although Amigo Holdings PLC is not directly regulated by the FCA, under the Group's current regulatory governance arrangements, Mr. Benamor would require FCA approval before he could take up the post of CEO for Amigo Holdings PLC. While it may be possible to restructure the Group's current regulatory governance arrangements over time, this would still require approval from the FCA and it is unlikely to remove the requirement for the CEO of Amigo Holdings PLC to be authorised by the FCA.
If Glen Crawford does not take up the position of CEO as a consequence of the appointment of Mr. Benamor to the Board, the Company will be without a CEO for an indeterminate and potentially prolonged period until an application for approval for the replacement CEO is submitted to and assessed by the FCA, and the FCA determines such candidate to be fit and proper to take up the role. The Board believes an absence of leadership for such a long period of time will be damaging and detrimental to the Company at this critical time.
If the resolution to remove the current CFO, Nayan Kisnadwala is passed, the Company will lose an experienced CFO who has a detailed understanding of the Company and its current issues. It will be difficult for the Company to implement its strategy and make progress with the current issues affecting the business if the Company does not have a CEO and a CFO.
Further to the announcements made on 20 May 2020 and 20 July 2020, Roger Lovering intends to step down from the Board after an appropriate hand-over period, once Jonathan Roe has received regulatory approval for his role as Chair of the Board. The hand-over period will also include the FCA's approval of Gary Jennison as Chair of Amigo's Risk Committee and Glen Crawford's approval as CEO. As announced on 10 August 2020, Gary Jennison joined the Board on 17 August 2020. The resolution to remove Roger Lovering is therefore unnecessary in light of his previous announced intention to step down but would leave the Board without a Chair until Jonathan Roe's appointment has been approved by the FCA.
On 5 September 2020, Mr. Benamor published on social media extracts from an agreement entered into with his brokers, pursuant to which he has placed an irrevocable buy order for the purchase of up to 29% of Amigo shares at any price up to 20p per share, conditional on "the appointment, approval and installation" of Mr. Benamor as CEO of Amigo Holdings PLC1. The Board notes the following:
• Even if the resolution to appoint Mr. Benamor to the Board of Amigo Holdings PLC is passed, for the reasons outlined above, Mr. Benamor will not be automatically appointed as CEO;
1 See: https://twitter.com/JamesBenamor?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
The Board therefore strongly cautions Shareholders against voting in favour of the Resolutions based on the stated intentions of Mr. Benamor and RGL to purchase 29% of the shares in issue due to the uncertainty of a number of variables which are outside the control of RGL and Mr. Benamor and which may significantly impact the likelihood of them being achieved.
The resolutions seeking to appoint a number of directors to the board of Amigo Loans have not been validly proposed (having been proposed as ordinary resolutions rather than special resolutions) and as a result the Board is under no obligation to put these resolutions to the General Meeting for consideration by Shareholders.
Notwithstanding the invalidity of these resolutions, the Board has put forward the resolutions as ordinary resolutions as proposed by RGL.
While the Board strongly advises Shareholders to vote against the resolutions seeking to appoint directors to the board of Amigo Loans, in the event that some or all of such resolutions are passed, Shareholders should note that they will be advisory only and as a result the Board will not be obliged to follow them. In any event, if passed the Board may not be able to procure compliance with the resolutions on the basis that (i) the nominees may not wish to take up the roles (and they cannot be forced to do so) and (ii) the nominees may need regulatory approval to take on the role.
RGL has not indicated why it wishes to propose the resolutions to appoint directors to the board of Amigo Loans. The proposed appointments to the board of Amigo Loans would be meaningless operationally and will not change the way in which the Group is managed or regulated. The Group is satisfied with its current governance structure and sees no need for any changes to the Board of Amigo Loans and therefore recommends that you vote against the Amigo Loans Resolutions.
The Board takes the wellbeing of its employees, customers and Shareholders very seriously. Given the UK Government's current guidance on social distancing the General Meeting will proceed with only such attendees, employees and support staff as is strictly required to run the General Meeting and satisfy the quorum requirements.
We regret that due to the Covid-19 pandemic it will not be possible for Shareholders (other than those forming the quorum, which will be facilitated by the Company) to attend the General Meeting in person. Any Shareholders who try to attend the General Meeting will be turned away.
The Board has put in place arrangements for the General Meeting to enable the Shareholders to continue to engage in the process. Shareholders will be able to listen to and view the General Meeting via webcast. Details will be made available on the Company's website (https://www.amigoplc.com/investors). Shareholders listening to and viewing the General Meeting via webcast will not be counted as being present at the General Meeting and, therefore, will not be able to speak or ask questions.
Shareholders can instead submit questions to the Board in advance of the General Meeting by emailing [email protected] by no later than 10.45am on Friday 25 September 2020. Please include your full name and investor code (IVC number). All questions received will be considered and answered either ahead of, or at the General Meeting, as appropriate.
The Board will keep the situation under review and may need to make further changes to the arrangements relating to the General Meeting, including how it is conducted, and Shareholders should therefore continue to monitor the Company's website and announcements for any updates.
As neither you, nor any person you might appoint to vote on your behalf other than the Chair of the meeting will be able to attend the meeting in person, you are strongly encouraged to vote by proxy and to appoint the Chair of the meeting as your proxy.
You can register your proxy vote electronically at www.signalshares.com.
If you need a hard copy form of proxy, please contact Link Asset Services, our registrar, on 0371 664 0300 (callers from overseas should call +44(0) 371 664 0300). Lines are open between 9.00am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays in England and Wales). Within the United Kingdom, calls are charged at the standard geographic rate and will vary by provider. Calls outside the United Kingdom will be charged at the applicable international rate.
Your proxy vote must be submitted by no later than 10.45am on Sunday 27 September 2020.
We strongly recommend that you register your proxy vote electronically. If you do intend to submit a hard copy form of proxy, please ensure your proxy form is posted sufficiently far in advance to ensure it is received before the deadline.
The Board2 and Glen Crawford are unanimous in recommending that Shareholders reject all of the Resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting.
Yours faithfully
Roger Lovering Acting Chair of the Board
2 Where an individual is named in a specific resolution, in view of the conflict of interest that this gives rise to, that individual Director's and Glen Crawford's recommendation is excluded from the Board's advice to shareholders in respect of that resolution, but it is his personal opinion and accords with the action he will take in respect of his voting with his own beneficial holding of Amigo shares.
Notice is hereby given that a general meeting (the "General Meeting") of Amigo Holdings PLC (the "Company") will be held at Nova, 118-128 Commercial Road, Bournemouth, England, BH2 5LT on Tuesday 29 September at 10.45am, or as soon thereafter as the Company's Annual General Meeting (which has been convened at 10.30am on the same day at the same location) has been concluded or adjourned to consider and, if thought fit, to pass resolutions below as ordinary resolutions (the "Resolutions"). Voting on all Resolutions will be by way of poll.
The Resolutions have been requisitioned pursuant to section 303 of the Companies Act 2006 by Richmond Group Limited, a registered shareholder of the Company.
Ordinary Resolutions
By order of the Board of Directors
Company Secretary
11 September 2020
Registered Office Nova 118-128 Commercial Road Bournemouth England BH2 5LT
together with, if appropriate, the power of attorney or other authority pursuant to which it is signed or a duly certified copy of that power or other authority.
Due to the potential disruption and delays to the postal service as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we strongly recommend that you register your proxy vote electronically. If you do intend to submit a hard copy form of proxy, please ensure your proxy form is posted sufficiently far in advance to ensure it is received before the deadline.
message, regardless of whether it constitutes the appointment of a proxy or an amendment to the instruction given to a previously appointed proxy, must, in order to be valid, be transmitted so as to be received by the issuer's agent, Link Asset Services (ID RA10) by the latest time(s) for receipt of proxy appointments specified in this notice.
For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the time (as determined by the time stamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which the issuer's agent is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST. After this time any change of instructions to proxies appointed through CREST should be communicated to the appointee through other means.
Resolutions 1 to 7 are proposed as ordinary resolutions, which means that, for each of those resolutions to be passed, more than 50% of the votes cast must be in favour of the resolution.
The following definitions apply throughout this document, unless the context otherwise requires:
| "Amigo Loans" | Amigo Loans Limited; |
|---|---|
| "Amigo Loans Resolutions" | Resolutions 4, 5, 6 and 7 listed on page 10 of this document in relation to the appointment of directors of Amigo Loans; |
| "Board" | the board of Directors; |
| "CEO" | Chief Executive Officer; |
| "Companies Act" | the UK Companies Act 2006 (as amended); |
| "Company" and "Amigo" | Amigo Holdings PLC; |
| "CREST" | the UK-based system for the paperless settlement of trades in listed securities, of which Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited is the operator; |
| "CREST Proxy Instruction" | an appropriate CREST message in order to appoint or instruct a proxy; |
| "Directors" | Gary Jennison, Nayan Kisnadwala, Roger Lovering, Richard Price and Jonathan Roe; |
| "Euroclear" | Euroclear UK and Ireland Limited; |
| "FCA" | Financial Conduct Authority; |
| "General Meeting" | the general meeting of the Company to be held at Nova, 118-128 Commercial Road, Bournemouth, England, BH2 5LT on Tuesday 29 September 2020 at 10.45am or as soon thereafter as the Company's Annual General Meeting (which has been convened at 10.30am on the same day at the same location) has been concluded or adjourned notice of which is set out on page 10 of this document, including any adjournment thereof; |
| "Group" | the Company and its subsidiaries; |
| "Latest Practicable Date" | 9 September 2020; |
| "Nominated Person" | any person to whom this notice is sent who is a person nominated under section 146 of the Companies Act 2006 to enjoy information rights; |
| "Notice of General Meeting" or "Notice" |
the notice of the General Meeting which is set out on page 10 of this document; |
| "Requisition Notice" | the notice dated 27 August 2020 which RGL served on the Company in accordance with section 303 of the Companies Act, requiring the Board to convene the General Meeting for the purposes of considering the Resolutions; |
| "Resolutions" | the ordinary resolutions listed on page 10 of this document; |
| "RGL" | Richmond Group Limited; |
| "Shareholders" | the holders of ordinary shares in the capital of the Company; and |
| "UK" or "United Kingdom" | the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. |
All references to legislation in this document are to the legislation of England and Wales unless the contrary is indicated. Any reference to any provision of any legislation shall include any amendment, modification, reenactment or extension of it.
Words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa, and words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine or neutral gender.
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