Provident Financial (FPLPF) climbed sharply in morning trading Friday, as the stricken British subprime loan provider announced management changes at the home credit business that caused its stunning crash this week.
The company named Chris Gillespie as managing director of the division, to replace Andy Parkinson with immediate effect, pushing the share up 20% to 897.92 pence by 11 a.m London time.
The move follows the departure on Tuesday of Provident Financial CEO Peter Crook, following the profit warning that sent its share plummeting to an all-time low of 426.6 pence from Monday's closing price of 1,745 pence. Even that was a long way from the more than 3,200 pence it reached in early summer, before a first profit warning in July indicated the depth of the company's problems.
The FTSE 100-listed company had already regained some of the lost ground by Thursday night, when it closed at 748 pence. But today's rise gives hope that executive chairwoman Manjit Wolstenholme can take the company in hand and start rebuilding a brand Crook's clumsily executed reorganization brought to its knees.
"Chris Gillespie's focus as the new Managing Director will be on re-establishing relationships with customers, bringing collections back to a normal level, and stabilizing the operation of the business," the company said.
Gillespie has worked for Provident Financial before, but stepped down from his role as managing director of the consumer credit division in 2013. According to Boardex, a business unit of TheStreet, he went on first to be CEO of pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond as it slid into insolvency administration in March 2014, and then of Amigo Loans, which specializes in loans to people with bad credit, provided they can find a personal guarantor.
