Nagle to meet Royal Bank of Scotland

Payzone chairman Bob Thian has cancelled the company's board meeting, which was scheduled to be held at its Sandyford-based head office in Dublin today.

It is understood that Mr Thian informed chief executive John Nagle and chief financial officer John Williamson of the decision in an e-mail sent just after midnight yesterday morning.

Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson, meanwhile, will meet the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in London today. The British bank will seek an update on recent events at the company. Payzone has debts of €300 million and RBS is one of its biggest lenders.

The decision to cancel the board meeting was taken in view of the legal proceedings currently underway in the High Court between Payzone and Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson, who were last week granted interim injunctions preventing them from being dismissed from their posts. Mr Thian secured the agreement of all of Payzone's non-executive directors to postpone the board meeting for one week until January 29th. The postponement of the meeting means that Payzone has yet to hold a full board meeting since it was created on December 5th from the merger of Irish electronic payments group Alphyra, which Mr Nagle founded, and British ATM operator Cardpoint, which was led by Mr Thian.

Mr Nagle was expected to give directors an update of the company's operational performance since the merger.

The High Court case was adjourned late last Friday evening and both sides are due to be informed today as to when it will restart.

Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson were dismissed from their posts by Payzone last week with Mr Thian assuming "executive responsibilities".

This followed a decision by Mr Thian and other members of the board, which the company has said is supported by 68 per cent of shareholders. This includes Balderton Capital, which owns 40.5 per cent of Payzone's equity.

The two executives were granted a reprieve by the High Court last Wednesday when legal proceedings between the two sides got underway.

Shares in Payzone were suspended on Thursday on the Alternative Investment Market in London pending the outcome of the legal case.

Mr Nagle claims Mr Thian is pursuing "a personal agenda" to deflect attention from the underperformance of Cardpoint and to "transfer blame" to himself and Mr Williamson.

Payzone argued in court last week that the two executives no longer had the confidence of other board members. Mr Thian has said that morale at Cardpoint was low and that 25 per cent of the company's ATMs were inoperable over Christmas.

It will argue that the two executives failed to attend meetings with board members last week and that they withheld from directors information on its financial and operational performance.