Quindell chairman turns on ousted predecessor

The chairman of Quindell yesterday launched an extraordinary attack on ousted predecessor Rob Terry, saying that the company’s reputation would have been ‘shot to pieces’ if it had kept him on a moment longer.

Richard Rose told the technology company’s annual gathering of shareholders that Terry’s departure at the end of last year was welcomed by ‘ the majority’ of investors.

When asked by retail shareholder Steven Little why the company had not retained Terry to help with its investigation into past accounting practices, Rose said: ‘I would suspect that the credibility would have been shot to pieces if we had retained the former chief executive to be honest.’

he added Terry had been ‘unhelpful’ when trying to dig out information into past deals.

When asked why Terry was not paid to stay on and help with the probe, Rose said: ‘he was paid quite adequately and I think that the majority of shareholders would form the view that he was paid too generously and retained for too long, but that’s a matter of opinion.’

Terry, who made £16m selling his shares, received £1.5m in redundancy pay and saw

Reputation would have been ‘shot to pieces’

£406,000 paid to close family members including his wife.

he also benefited from a number of opaque deals including an interest free £100,000 loan and a barn conversion. Rose’s uncharacteristically unguarded remarks came as he announced the company would ditch its tainted name before Christmas in a bid to draw a line under a turbulent past.

There is currently a shortlist of new names, though ‘none begin with Q’, he said after the meeting.

Though listed on London’s junior aIM stock market, Quindell once had a value of almost £3bn and boasted scores of retail investors – many of whom saw their investments hammered when shares collapsed amid a string of scandals.

earlier this year the company sold the bulk of its operations – processing legal claims – to australian law firm Slater & Gordon for £664m, leaving a clutch of smaller divisions focused on black box technology for cars.

It currently faces a Serious Fraud Office investigation after writing down millions from past deals and admitting it has not turned a profit for years.

The annual meeting saw shareholders divided over the company’s past and future.

One, who did not give his name, accused the board of ‘selling off the family silver’ by offloading the legal arm – but many others backed the move.

Several asked for assurances that the 100p payout from the Slater sale would be unimpeded by the SFO probe.

Incoming chief executive Indro Mukerjee was not present because he was at a conference in the US. Speaking after the meeting, Rose recounted the only time he met Terry.

‘I met him once back in September and he told me to F-off.’

The pair had coffee when one of Quindell’s largest shareholders was trying to replace Terry with Rose as chairman.

Rose said the meeting, which lasted ‘about an hour’, began genially but ended with Terry’s curt remark.

Less than a month later, it emerged Terry and two other executives had entered into a deal to sell shares – despite Terry sitting on the price sensitive information that the company’s joint broker had quit.

Terry was fired in early November.