BOOM! Patrick Snowball is a former tank commander, but the Provident Financial chairman and his team were blown to smithereens on Friday after a blitzkrieg by the doorstep lender’s former chief executive.
The phone call outlining the hostile bid — and the backing of half the Provident shareholders — came 10 minutes before news of the stunning £1.3 billion move hit the wires.
It’s a battlefield manoeuvre he would probably have been proud of himself.
Good. This is how capitalism is supposed to work. Snowball used to call his three tanks Chaos, Calamity and Catastrophe: just what Provident shareholders have been through in the past 18 months thanks to unfolding disasters including a botched restructuring of its doorstep lending arm and two probes by the regulator.
Shares have fallen 80% in that time and the boardroom door has been a blur.
But today’s nil-premium offer gives Provident’s shareholders 88% of the new business and effectively imports the Non-Standard Finance management team, headed by John van Kuffeler, who know Provident like the back of their hand.
Compare that with a board stuffed with investment bankers and insurers, rather than executives steeped in experience of the sector.
Provident refused to engage a year ago but last month’s profit warning was the last straw. No wonder Neil Woodford et al have run out of patience and decided to back the efforts of the relative minnow.
The share price rise suggests more bid interest, but no other suitor looks better placed to fix things.
Provident’s “take no action” statement to shareholders today looks painfully redundant - if not embarrassing - because frankly, they already have.
This campaign is all over bar the shouting: Snowball must prepare for unconditional surrender.
