Plus Markets chairman to leave

The chairman of Plus Markets, the junior London stock exchange that is home to Arsenal Football Club, is to leave the group following pressure from one of the exchange's major shareholders for a boardroom shake-up after mounting losses at the company. The Middle Eastern investment group Amara Dhari, which holds some 17 per cent of Plus Markets, had called for the resignation of Giles Vardey, and Plus Markets said Mr Vardey had now decided to quit. Malcolm Basing will become its interim chairman for the time being.

Plus Markets grew out of the old Ofex, an alternative stock market requiring a lower level of regulation than is imposed by members of either the AIM or the London Stock Exchange.