Speedy Hire fights activist demanding its boss quits

THE bitter row between tool rental firm Speedy Hire and a hedge fund that wants its boss to quit turned even nastier yesterday.

Speedy Hire is engulfed in a spat with its biggest shareholder Toscafund, which demanded the sacking of executive chairman Jan Astrand after the share price fell by half in the last year.

Toscafund – which owns a 19.4pc stake – claims Astrand lacks the ‘appropriate record or attitude’ to deliver and should stand down.

It wants to replace Astrand with turnaround specialist David Shearer – a former chairman of infrastructure company Mouchel Group before it was sold to Kier in 2014.

But Speedy Hire says Astrand isn’t going anywhere and is essential to the firm’s financial recovery. Yesterday morning it urged shareholders to vote against the election of Shearer at a general meeting next week.

It claims Shearer’s ‘experience is no longer relevant’ and his ‘independence from Toscafund not proven’.

The led to another statement from Toscafund and yet another plea to shareholders, claiming Speedy Hire’s latest words amount to little more than ‘questionable assertions, selective facts, and unsubstantiated claims’.

It also said there was ‘no prospect or plan’ to reintroduce a much talked-about merger deal with rival HSS.

Talks between Speedy Hire and HSS have dragged on in the past year, with Toscafund previously calling for a tie-up.

Toscafund further called into question the firm’s recovery, adding: ‘The board of Speedy Hire has failed to demonstrate any real momentum.’

It said the share price of Speedy Hire has fallen from £400m to £200m since November 2014, which represents ‘ significant shareholder value destruction’.

Toscafund added current chief executive Russell Down was the right man to lead the business, but Speedy Hire needed a chairman who was ‘trusted by, and has a good relationship with all shareholders’.

Shares fell 0.7pc, or 0.25p to 38p per share.