Blur Group, the online marketplace for business services, has lost its third finance chief in two years after Stephen Harvey resigned to face personal bankruptcy proceedings.
Harvey – who arrived at Blur’s Exeter headquarters eight months ago, having run Microsoft UK’s finances until 2004 – had been expected to join the company’s main board in due course. He was granted 400,000 performance shares on arrival, but these were only exercisable after four years and the details of any severance package have not been announced.
“This is a personal matter wholly unrelated to the group,” the company said. But Harvey’s resignation before a bankruptcy hearing next Monday is the latest in a string of upsets at the company that bills itself as “eBay for business services”.
Last year, Blur was forced to revise the way it booked revenues, issue two profit warnings, lost one of its two joint brokers, and was criticised for a fundraising in which it placed shares at an 80% discount to the value at which its chief executive had sold £3.6m of stock in October 2013.
Founder, chief executive and chairman Philip Letts sold 900,000 shares in October 2013 at 400p each. The following March, Blur was forced to discount shares to 75p each in order to raise new cash.
The group, which helps businesses buy and sell accountancy, advertising, app-building and legal services in exchange for a 20% cut, has issued four profit warnings since January 2014. Over the same period, its shares have lost more than 90% of their value and now trade at 46p.
In April, Blur warned its full-year revenues would be “substantially lower than previously expected”, after discussions with its auditor KPMG uncovered projects which had suffered delays and were less likely to be completed. The company has attracted scrutiny from UK regulator the Financial Reporting Council over how its revenues should be counted.
Harvey is not the only listed company finance boss to face bankruptcy this year. Shaun Wills, at the clothing retailer Supergroup, fell on his sword after being declared bankrupt in February, after a tax dispute over his income from another job.
Until Blur recruits his replacement, Harvey’s shoes will be filled by Barbara Spurrier, who remains on the main board as director of financial reporting, with support from the group’s finance controller, James Porter, and co-chief operating officer, Helen Blackmore.
Spurrier held the fort just over a year ago, when the previous chief financial officer, James Davis, left aftereight months. He had replaced Belinda Wrigley, who had joined from BT but stayed only five months.
Harvey was part of the team that helped Microsoft’s UK division become its best performing worldwide. He left to become chief financial officer of the messaging company Acision, departed after six months and held posts at companies in Malta and Dubai before joining Blur.
The company was founded in 2005 and aims to become profitable by early next year.
