Provident Financial’s stock market value has more than halved after the doorstep lender issued its second profit warning in two months, parted company with its chief executive and cancelled a dividend for shareholders. Its chief executive, Peter Crook, who oversaw the change, has stepped down, with Manjit Wolstenholme taking on the role of executive chairman. Shares in the sub-prime lender have fallen 70% so far on Tuesday, from more than £17 to 448p, wiping nearly £2bn off its stock market value. But in a statement to the stock market, Provident said the software had presented some early issues, while the new operating model had “not allowed sufficient local autonomy”, leading to poor allocation of resources. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets called the string of negative announcements a “quadruple whammy” as Provident’s share price nosedived.

Source: The Guardian August 22, 2017 09:41 UTC