Provident Financial shares plunge 68pc as boss exits on huge profit warning
Provident Financial's shares have plunged more than 68pc as investors digested a fresh profit warning from the company as well as the shock departure of its chief executive and a scrapped dividend. Peter Crook has left the FTSE 100 company with immediate effect a month after insisting it was on the "road to recovery". In a statement today Provident warned that it could make losses of between £80m and £120m in its home credit business this year after it recently changed the way it collected loans. That compares to a £60m profit forecast announced just three months ago, when the Bradford-based group alerted shareholders that profits in the division were expected to halve from £115m in 2016. Provident was set up in 1880 to provide affordable credit to poor families in Yorkshire, and its home credit business relies on agents to knock on customers' doors and offer them loans or ask for repayments. Manjit Wolstenholme will assume the role of executive chairman immediately, making her responsible for fixing a unit in "rapid deterioration." Ms Wolstenholme told The Telegraph that she would now review every part of the home credit business to find out why its change in debt collectors was executed so badly. Provident Financial "My job is to get the announcement out there and crack on. It's just a matter of knuckling down," she said, adding that she would look externally as well as internally for any people she needs to bring in. "There's no-holds barred on what we're looking at here." The problems stem from a rejig of the company's door-to-door salesforce earlier this year, when it was left with fewer loan collectors than expected after deciding to employ 2,500 full-time agents who visit homes to make new loans or collect ...Read the rest of this story
