Directors’ share loans take toll at Quindell

Quindell’s outgoing finance director Laurence Moorse will walk away with more than £100,000 profit from a controversial share loan arrangement despite failing to meet a margin call.

Mr Moorse, together with company founder Rob Terry and former non-executive director Steve Scott, took part in an opaque deal with the US group Equities First Holdings that resulted in the departures of all three men and left the outsourcing group’s reputation in tatters.

Although it originally looked as though they had increased their personal holdings in Quindell, in fact they had been reduced due to a sale and repurchase agreement with EFH to fund further share purchases. The three men effectively sold shares worth almost £9m but bought only £2.9m in new shares.

News of the unusual arrangement sent shares in the group tumbling, triggering the margin call to transfer cash or shares to EFH once they fell below a certain level, which they have now done.

Mr Moorse took out a £168,714 loan and spent £61,500 on shares, leaving him with about £103,000.

However, the company added yesterday that he had given up the right to buy a further £175,000 of shares in two years’ time. “As a result [of the margin call], his right to purchase 200,000 ordinary shares of 15p each transferred to him by EFH under the agreement will be terminated as of today,” Quindell said.

Quindell shares fell 8.6 per cent to 71.5p. Mr Moorse will stand down next year following the group’s annual meeting.

Quindell has endured a torrid few months since £900m was wiped off its value by a US company called Gotham City Research, which issued a note with a host of damning claims about its finances.