Rob Terry ousted from Quindell
Quindell has responded to months of turmoil by ejecting Rob Terry, its founder and chairman, in a dramatic attempt to restore investor confidence.
The insurance claims processor, which has lost over £2bn in market value since April, will announce Mr Terry’s departure on Tuesday morning, people familiar with the situation said. The founder will remain a paid consultant to Quindell.
David Currie, the former head of investment banking at Investec, and Quindell’s highest-profile independent director, will become interim executive chairman. He will begin the search for a full-time chairman.
Finance director Laurence Moorse will step down after the 2015 annual meeting and leave a year later, while independent director Steve Scott will leave immediately.
Both men had been involved in a controversial share deal, alongside Mr Terry, that saw them in effect sell shares while announcing they were buyers.
Mr Terry was unavailable for comment. Mr Moorse and Mr Scott could not be reached for comment.
Quindell’s board will restate its confidence that the company, which is seeking to reduce insurers’ costs in processing claims, and which has contracts for the rollout of black box technology in cars, has a strong business future.
It is the second time that Mr Terry has been ejected from an insurance company that he has founded. In 2003, he was forced from the board of Innovation Group, after that company suffered a similar share price plunge to Quindell.
Mr Currie, Quindell’s new interim chairman, was an adviser to Innovation Group.
Mr Terry founded Quindell as a leisure company, buying an 18-hole golf course in Hampshire and investing in golf simulators. He transformed it into an insurance claims processor, legal services and telematics provider, which joined London’s junior market Aim via a reverse takeover in 2011.
He had wooed retail investors and large institutional clients such as M&G and Investec with the promise of building a leading insurance technology company that could one day join the FTSE 100.
However, he became a lightning rod for many attacks, as shortsellers pored over related-party transactions involving Quindell and other companies in which he was a director.
Quindell was denied permission to seek a main London listing by regulators this year.