Shareholders seek Payzone egm to oust CEO, CFO

Five of Payzone's shareholders yesterday submitted a request to the company to hold an extraordinary general meeting (egm) that would seek to remove chief executive John Nagle and chief financial officer John Williamson from their posts. Ciarán Hancock, Business Affairs Correspondent, reports.

It is understood that the request was submitted to the company's head office in Sandyford yesterday by courier.

It is not clear which shareholders are pushing for the meeting but a number of large investors are thought to have backed chairman Bob Thian's decision to remove the pair from their posts.

These are believed to include Cycladic Capital, Artemis Investment Management and JO Hambro Capital Management, which own about 17 per cent of Payzone's equity.

Balderton Capital, Payzone's biggest shareholder with a 40.5 per cent stake, also supports Mr Thian's decision.

The move was made in advance of the High Court delivering its judgment in relation to the dispute between Payzone and its chief executive John Nagle and chief financial officer John Williamson.

The two executives are seeking an injunction preventing the company from removing them from their posts.

Payzone was created on December 5th by the merger of Irish electronic payments group Alphyra, which Mr Nagle founded, with UK ATM operator Cardpoint, which Mr Thian headed.

The decision to submit a request for an egm would seem to indicate the shareholders are not confident that the High Court will rule in their favour today.

The legal action has been in train for more than two weeks.

Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson were dismissed on the evening of January 15th with Payzone issuing a statement to the stock market about their departure the following day.

They were granted an interim injunction by the High Court after claiming the meeting of directors that took the decision to dismiss them was not properly convened and that the terms of their contracts had been breached.

If the High Court rules in favour of Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson, they will be reinstated to their posts.

They would then have to consider the request for an egm.

If they rejected the request, the shareholders could then proceed to call an egm themselves.

This could extend the deadline for holding the meeting to seven weeks from the date of the request.