Reinstated shares in makeup brand Revolution Beauty soared by over 50 per cent this morning as an attempted boardroom coup by largest shareholder, Manchester’s Boohoo, appeared to stall following yesterday’s AGM.
Revolution Beauty’s shares were suspended from trading on September 1 last year, after the company’s auditors raised concerns about its financial accounts and the company failed to publish its 2022 annual results. Reinstated to AIM this morning following the departure of Revolution’s senior leadership and improved performance by the company, shares were up 59.5 per cent at 30.3p at 9am.
Boohoo appeared to have succeeded with its boardroom takeover at yesterday’s AGM after several key figures were voted off the board, leaving the company with only one remaining director, Jeremy Schwartz.
Schwartz, however, reappointed the company’s chief executive, Bob Holt; chief financial officer Elizabeth Lake and chairman Derek Zissman despite Boohoo leading the successful vote to oust them. Rachel Maguire and Matthew Eatough were were re-appointed as directors.
Boohoo holds a stake of over 26 per cent in the company. Earlier this month, it outlined plans to appoint two of its non-executive directors, Alistair McGeorge and Neil Catto, to Revolution Beauty’s board as executive chairman and CFO respectively. It also had plans to appoint former THG Beauty CEO Rachel Horsefield to the board.
Earlier this month, Revolution Beauty branded Boohoo’s attempt to take control of the company as “value-destructive, opportunistic and self-serving.”
Remaining director Schwartz said of yesterday;s dramatic events: “The decisions I took today as the sole director of the company following the AGM were not taken lightly.
“I had to consider my duties as a director, and act in what I genuinely believed to be in the best interests of the company, for the benefit of its members as a whole.
“Among other things, without the board changes effected following the AGM, there was no certainty as to when (if at all) the company’s shares would be restored to trading on AIM.
“As a result of the appointment and re-appointment of the board, however, the shares are expected to be restored to trading imminently, something which is undeniably in the interests of all shareholders, including boohoo, as well as all of the group’s other stakeholders.”
The drama may not be completely over just yet, however. Boohoo responded that it “remains supportive of a lifting of the suspension [of shares], but not at the expense of doing so with a board that has proven to behave inappropriately.”
It went on to call for a new general meeting to approve the appointment of McGeorge and Catto as directors “without further delay” and with no further attempts “to obstruct shareholders and adjourn that meeting, once convened.”
Schwarz appeared to accede to that request, saying: “The board will proceed to call the general meeting requisitioned by Boohoo for a date to be confirmed in late July or early August, as previously announced.”
