SHL founders threaten to fight on after shareholders back chairman

The chairman and the chief executive of the psychometric testing company SHL yesterday won the backing of enough shareholders to keep their jobs but the row over who should lead the business looked set to carry on into the new year as founder Roger Holdsworth threatened to take further action.

At an extraordinary general meeting held in London yesterday, shareholders voted to oust two non-executive directors, who are the company's founders, Mr Holdsworth and Peter Saville, in favour of keeping the non-executive chairman Neville Bain and the chief executive John Bateson.

But Mr Holdsworth said he saw "no prospect of improvement for shareholders or employees without top management change" and said he would be keeping a close eye on the company's performance.

"We've got to accept that this was the majority view of the shareholders," Mr Holdsworth said but warned: "The fat lady has not sung. Definitely not."

About 55 per cent of the votes were cast in favour of resolutions proposing both he and Mr Saville be removed from the board, while about 60 per cent of the votes cast were against resolutions proposing Mr Bain and Mr Bateson be ousted.

"The jury is still out. They [current management] have got to perform well," Mr Holdsworth said, adding "there's a whole range of options" that could be implemented if the business did not perform.

That could include ordering another special meeting or even launching a management buyout, he said. He is also considering setting up a rival business. The two founders own some 13 per cent of SHL.

SHL, which had warned that all its other directors would quit if Mr Bain and Mr Bateson were ousted, said yesterday that two institutions, Hermes and Fidelity, had voted with management.

Mr Bain said simply that he wanted to "get on and run the business" and "draw a line under" the whole episode which, he admitted, had proved a major distraction and had "hurt" staff morale.

While he said the matter would be aired at a board meeting in January, he thought it unlikely that any other non-executive directors would be appointed to replace Mr Holdsworth and Mr Saville.

"The board was always too large, we felt," Mr Bain said, adding: "My personal view is that the board is about the right size [now]."